A World That Needs Me
by KeyToUnivers
Summary: /"When thinking about it," he thought "you have always been a savior: even in the face of disaster, you always had a way out for us. I am not like you, I am not a miracle-maker."/ Follow Gohan, the one who died by the hands of the Androids (or did he?) in the original timeline as he find himself in the World of the Ninjas, in his 7 years old body.
1. A Brave Warrior's Last Stand

_**Hey there, KeyToUnivers speaking! And welcome, WELCOME to my new story!**_

_**For those of you who got lost while browsing through the Net or just had a sudden amnesia ("o_o) you are in an X-over story mixing my two favorite mangas EVER! (no, I'm not a fanboy.) Dragon Ball and Naruto!**_

_**Of course, I'll begin this story at the moment Gohan gets ready to fight androids 17 and 18: Hope you'll like the fight scene! I'll also appear ONCE in the story at any moment, try to guess when…**_

_**Gohan and Naruto, each one of you do the disclaimer of your own series!**_

_**_Gohan: Dragon Ball is owned by Akira Toriyama.**_

_**_Naruto: Naruto is owned by Masashi Kishimoto.**_

_**_Gohan and Naruto: Please support the official releases!**_

* * *

**I\ A brave warrior's last stand**

(On a mountain, near a city)

On the summit of a mountain, two boys were taking a break after a tough training session. The two boys were a man around his twenty years-old and a teenager around his fifteen.

The man was a muscular youth with a scar on the left side of his face, going from above his eye to his cheek. He had short black hair, slicked in spikes in the front, and black eyes. He wore an orange gi that read on its back the kanji word 'Han' (飯) meaning _Meal_, with blue shirt underneath with elbow length sleeves, covering only his right arm since he missed the left one, and matching blue wristbands, belt and boots. He was lying on the ground, supporting his head with his remaining arm, looking at the sky.

His friend was slim teenager with straight purple hair and blue eyes wearing a long-sleeved white shirt with blue on the shoulder to the end of the sleeves. His shirt had the words 'CAPSULE corp.' on it. He also wore grey pants and black boots. He was sitting on a rock while looking at his friend with a grave look.

"I can't believe myself! I've been trying over and over and I still can't turn into a Super Saiyan?!" the purple-head complained, upset that he couldn't achieve what his father and his master achieved before him. The said master looked at his and gave reassuring smile.

"Relax, Trunks, just forget a little about becoming a 'Super Saiyan', will you?" he told him.

"Relax? But, you're my teacher, you should know what's wrong with me!" the teen, now know as Trunks, replied.

"Nothing is wrong with you," his teacher said, causing the teen to turn around and face him "you just need to find the right motivation. It's easy for me," he added, looking back at the sky and frowning while resuming his sentence "all I have to do is think about how those Androids killed Picoro-san and Kuririn-san, and then I feel a horrible pain. This pain turns, then, into rage: I don't want this to happen again and that's when the dam breaks!" as he was talking, Trunks was attentively listening to him.

Silence fell upon them.

"Hey, Gohan-san." The teen said, hesitant, breaking the silence.

"Hn? What wrong, Trunks?" the young man, now known as Gohan, replied.

"N-nothing… I just wanted to know," he paused, looking down to his feet before resuming and looking back at his companion "what was my father like? I never met him while you have known him for quite a long time." he finally managed to ask.

Gohan, at first, just looked at Trunks, expressionless. Then, he smiled and answered "You're father was a proud Saiyan warrior. He and my father would always fight to know who was the strongest. He sure was overconfident, mean and sometimes cruel, but do not forget that he was the Saiyan Prince." That description made the younger Saiyan smile while looking back at the sky.

Gohan did the same, but now, a flow of memories came back to his mind: memories of Vegeta, Trunks' father, but also, memories of his own father. He couldn't help but remember all those times he was in danger and Goku would appear to save him from the fatality. He clearly recalled the time Nappa, a scary bald Saiyan warrior that was Vegeta's ally during the time the latter was an evil planet destroyer, was about to crush him with his foot and there, his father came and saved him. He recalled the time he was severely injured by Recoome, a member of the Ginyu Force, and Goku arrived just in time to heal him with a Senzu Bean. He also recalled the moment everything seemed lost during the fight against Frieza, the galactic tyrant, and his father transformed into a Super Saiyan: a legendary transformation achieved only by the strong-willed Saiyans, and put the monster in a critical state.

'_When thinking about it,'_ he thought _'you have always been a savior: even in the face of disaster, you always had a way out for us. I am not like you, I am not a miracle-maker and the Androids will get me sooner or later. But…'_ He looked at his student and friend, Trunks _'If that day ever comes, I will join you in the Other World with a clear consciousness, because I left a shining light of hope for the future… Trunks.'_

***BOOM***

His thoughts were interrupted by a huge explosion that came from far away. The two warriors stood up and looked in front of them: a dark cloud of smoke was emanating from the city near their emplacement, letting them deduce what happened _'The Androids!'_ they thought.

"Uuuugh… ARRRGH!" Gohan shout as he converted his anger into power.

He was now enveloped in a golden aura that surrounded his whole body. His muscles were now twice as developed as they were. His hair, however, were spikier, as if hit by a thunderbolt, and took a golden taint, matching the aura that enveloped him. His eyes, from the black color they had, changed into emerald green orbs around his iris. His expression also metamorphosed: from the calm, serious young man, he transformed into a furious and enraged warrior, ready for the fight.

"I can't let you fight them!" shout the teenager.

"Trunks, listen: I have to go! You stay here and don't leave no matter what!" ordered Gohan.

"Are you crazy?! You don't stand a chance: especially not with your injury!"

"Just listen, if you come with me, I'll be more vulnerable!"

"But I'm stronger this time! Trust me, I can handle myself!" after that last argument, the two hybrids stared at each other for a moment, before Gohan sighed and slightly smiled.

"Okay, Trunks, you win." He said.

"Yes, let's get them!" he said, turning his attention to the burning city in front of him.

The Super Saiyan still stared at him with a hint of sadness in his eyes _'Forgive me, Trunks…'_ he discretely raised his open hand behind the other Saiyan hybrid and hit him on the back of his neck, knocking him off.

Trunks began falling on the ground, unconscious, and then, Gohan grab him by the shirt and slowed his fall, putting him slowly down. He was still looking at him with sorrow _'You're still not quite ready for this fight. I can hear all those people down here, crying; that's why I have to go. You are our last hope, Trunks, you have to live…'_ he prepared to leave, but rested his emerald eyes on the Future's last hope, for the last time _'Goodbye, little brother. Hopefully, you'll understand someday and forgive me.'_

With that, the warrior powered up and flew off at high speed towards the battlefield.

* * *

(Meanwhile, in the destroyed city)

To think that the day began by being a casual, sunny and beautiful day and ended up to become an apocalyptic spectacle: before the people of the town could blink, a gigantic shining energy blast fell from the sky upon the city and caused an enormous explosion in the area around it, destroying everything standing in its path: streets, vehicles, buildings, people… everything caught in that explosion.

If the town was, some minutes ago, filled with the noisy crowd enjoying their day, now it was filled with screams of fear for the ones trying to escape that rampage, and of agony for those suffering it.

What was the cause of all this chaos, you ask? The answer is simple: The Androids, two human-shaped war machines created by Dr. Gero.

Dr. Gero was a mad scientist who was working for the Red Ribbon Army, a powerful army known across the world and led by the diminutive Commander Red who had one goal: get the seven Dragon Balls dispersed in all the corners of the globe by all means, including: enslaving people, interrogating them, stealing them, menacing them, torturing them and even killing them to 'keep them quiet'.

It said that if you collected all seven of the artifacts, the mighty dragon, Shen-long, would come out of them and grant you one single wish before vanishing with the Dragon Balls and dispersing them across the world once more. Commander Red heard a rumor about them and immediately ordered his army to search for them. But what was his wish? Was to sell them? No. Was it to be grant money? No. Was it for the title of the lord of the world? Not even close. His ultimate goal was quite stupid: he wanted a normal height since he was, as stated before, very short for an adult.

However, not only did the Red Ribbon Army failed to achieve its goal, but it has also been terminated by a single man, or should we say, a single kid. That kid assaulted the army, defeating their most feared and powerful generals and destroying the entire bases. That mighty boy was actually Goku during the time he was around his 14 years old. He successfully annihilated the R&amp;R name from history… or so everyone thought.

As they thought that the R&amp;R army was done for good, there actually was a sole survivor, Dr. Gero.

After what Goku did to his army, the scientist live with the hope of getting revenge one day on Goku. He began kidnapping human subjects, trying to create androids with their shapes. Most of his early experiments failed, causing the death of his subjects and feeding his anger even more. Every day passing, every minute passing made his thirst of revenge even greater.

Meanwhile, he decided to build a microscopic fly-shaped robot to spy on Goku and his friends and follow his progress through the years and study his techniques: from his fight with King Picoro to his fight with Vegeta, missing the journey to namek. But, it didn't make a huge difference, though. It's only after seventeen years of patience that he finally activated his master-pieces.

Android 17, a young man-shaped cyborg with shoulder-length black hair, hiding his earrings, and blue eyes full of life, he was wearing a black T-shirt that had the Red Ribbon's logo on the left side of his chest with an orange bandanna around his neck, and he wore a long-sleeved white shirt underneath his T-shirt. He also was wearing a belt to hold up his blue torn jeans and just below this belt, he wore another one with a pouch and a gun holster. He had a pair of blue and white sneakers and green socks.

Android 18, however, was young woman-shaped cyborg with a similar look with her twin brother: shoulder-length hair, only that her were blonde and she kept the left side of it behind her ear, revealing her hoop earring. She had blue eyes just like the cyborg 17 and wore blue denim open jacket that revealed her black undershirt with black and white striped sleeves. She was wearing a short skirt matching her denim blue jacket with, under it, some dark blue stockings. She had brown boots.

The two cyborgs were powerful and created with one goal: eliminate Son Goku. However, Gero lost his control over them and they ended up killing him, their own creator.

The two Androids began looking for their target, afterwards. They started by attacking South City, attracting the Z-fighters' attention. They tried to face their new threat, but ended up getting killed, one after the other except for Goku who died some months prior due to an unknown Heart Virus he caught from God knows where, and Gohan who managed to escape the monsters.

Knowing that they had not any real purpose of living since Goku was dead, the Androids decided to do whatever they felt like doing which means enjoying themselves by breaking all the rules of life and destroying towns when they were really bored, usually ending up with them fighting Gohan and Trunks, the last survivors of the Saiyan race and the last Z-fighters to block their path. They kept that style of life for the following thirteen years.

Today, again, they were the ones responsible for the destruction of the city they were in right now. 17 was standing on a building, throwing energy balls at every human crossing his eyesight while 18 was watching him from her place, sitting on a destroyed building, crossing her legs and with annoyance visible in her pretty face.

"Won't we do something else for a change?! This is getting boring!" she complained.

"Boring?" he repeated, turning his attention to her and leaving the poor citizen for some seconds "But this is actually fun! Waiting for you while you try every single dress in the stores we cross, THIS is boring!" he then returned his attention to the people running everywhere and launched another beam from his index finger "C'mon, look at them; isn't it great to have them scream and try to run their ass out of here?"

The female was still unhappy. But, she noticed that, behind her, a random victim was pushing his way out the debris of a building that collapsed on him and was beginning to crawl around, severely injured. The blonde smiled while pointing her left index finger behind her right arm and said, watching 17.

"I think you missed one." with that, she released from her finger an energy ray that caused an explosion when it connected with her target, pulling up smoke and debris and obviously killing the unlucky man.

"That's 10 more points!" said the male Android, hinting that the two of them were comparing their destructive ambitions with a videogame and that their victims were the targets to hit to get points "Now, we're tied." As he finished pronouncing those words, something violently hit him in the face and sent him crash in a building, causing it to collapse on him.

18 raised her eyes to see who was the culprit behind that interruption, just to see a pair of feet, covered in familiar blue boots, landing on the building her brother was standing on, a moment ago. As she raised her eyes more, she could perfectly see a blonde-haired man standing straight with his green eyes staring at her with hate: the new arriver was nobody else than Gohan who just joined the battlefield.

"Ugh. AAH!" the voice belonged to 17 who just used his energy to repulse the debris surrounding him. As the smoke cleared revealing him standing, 18 laughed, pointing her finger at him.

"Ahahahah! Your shirt, it's torn!" she kept laughing like that.

"That's quite an entrance you made," the subject of laugh told Gohan as he walked toward him, hiding his anger in his voice "I hope you enjoyed it, because it will cost you your life!" then, he clenched his hands in fists and almost yelled "And you trashed my favorite shirt!"

He kept staring at the Hybrid before smiling, a sadistic smile that would never result in anything good "But I'm glad you came, though. Yeah, this is perfect: you can be our tie-breaker!" by the time he ended his sentence, 18 descended to their level, right behind Gohan, crossing her arms and copying her brother's sadistic smile.

"First who kills him wins; it's sudden death: no tie." She said staying in the videogame concept.

"You know you can't win, you can't destroy what I really am!" shout Gohan, switching his glance from an Android to the other "Even if you manage to kill this body, someone even stronger would surface and take my place!" as he said those words, the two monsters closed the distance between them slowly, mockingly laughing "Not one death will go uncounted for, NOT ONE!"

_~Music Recommendation: 'Prevent it! Cell's perfect Body'~_

With that, he finally began powering up, the golden aura surrounding him again, giving his face even more bestiality. At the same moment, the cyborgs stopped walking and began rushing toward him from both his front, for 17, and his back, for 18, leaving him minor options to dodge.

The Saiyan raised his only hand up and created a blue orb of energy in his palm. Both Androids were ready to attack; they knew he wouldn't be able to do much with only one arm left.

To their surprise, the Hybrid didn't launch the attack on them. At the last moment, he threw it to the ground, raising a cloud of smoke to confuse his opponents AND evading them by sending himself to the air, flying.

The twins, however, didn't lose his track for too long, they quickly followed him up in the air and caught up to him _'I should have expected it, from them…'_ the warrior thought.

Then, they got above him and charged yellow energy balls in each of their hands and throwing them at their enemy who now had in total four blasts to handle. The young Saiyan stopped his ascension to the sky and concentrated his KI around him "Devil Shell!" he pronounced as a green barrier of energy formed around him, blocking them and protecting him. The shock resulted in a massive explosion and a blinding light.

'_Dammit! This is the kind of moment they've been waiting for!'_ Gohan thought as he perfectly knew that one the biggest advantages of the Androids is that they don't have KI so it is impossible to feel their presence. However, they can feel his which is pretty much to his disadvantage. He decided to instead focus on his ears and try to hear their movements.

"UAH!" He heard something coming at him from the left, so he got his right arm ready to block whatever was coming at him.

***BAF***

He successfully blocked the punch that was thrown at him, and his aggressor revealed it to be Android 18. As he struggled to push her away, he heard yet another person coming at him, 17 this time, for sure. However, his only arm was already occupied and before he had time to think of another solution, he received the strike on the back of his neck, pushing him to the female who got on the other side and joined her hands into a hammer and hit the weakened man on the back so violently that he crashed to the ground at high speed, hitting his back on a tunnel in the process.

As he opened him eyes after the impact, he quickly rolled backward and used his hand to push himself back, evading just in time the blow his enemies were about to deliver him while he was still down.

He did a series of jumps to the back before stopping on where he thought was a reasonable distance to use his attack _'Look, dad! I'm doing this one for you!'_ he thought, preparing his attack: a special technique he mastered with the help of Master Roshi, after his father's death.

He gestured his hand backward _'KAAA…' _he saw the Androids getting closer to one another _'MEEE…'_ they joined their hands to the front: 17 the right hand and 18 the left one _'HAAA'_ a blue orb of energy began forming in his hand, and a yellow one formed in front the cyborgs' ones _'MEEE…'_ they were the first to launch their attack: a golden beam that moved fast toward him "HAAAAA!" Finally, he also released the energy wave he has been preparing.

The two attacks collided, resulting in a violent clash between the two waves of energy, repulsing everything around them, as the three fighters were struggling to keep on their feet, even if the Androids were having the upper hand. Goku's son desperately stood as he was watching the golden light surround him even more than the blue one did, proving that he was losing the struggle.

He began clenching his teeth _'Darn! If today is the day I join you…'_ he was thinking about both his father and Picoro as he felt them closer to him, maybe because he felt his end near?

_~Change the music to: 'Bardock's death theme'~_

For a moment, he had a vision. He was in a dark space, with nothing around him. He randomly looked around, before noticing a light in the distance. The light was growing bigger, closer, until it consumed him completely and blinded him.

When he was able to see again, he was in a land with grass and mountains. He distinguish silhouettes in front of him that he immediately recognized: he recognized himself, as a kid, Kuririn on the ground, severely injured and a bald, giant half-naked man who was starring angrily at his younger version.

"That's it, kid, you've done it this time!" he said as he raised his hand and a white form of energy formed around it, frightening his young self.

"AWAY WITH YOU!" he growled as he launched the attack.

The real Gohan was watching this memory, powerless: he tried to move forward and punch the bald, but he was unable to move. What came next perfectly fitted his memory: as the blinding white attack was thrown at him, a new silhouette came in front of him and separated his hands to each side in a protective way _'P-Picoro-san…'_ he barely managed to whisper.

Then suddenly, the persons in front of him disappeared, he was all alone, now. He stood still for a moment and began noticing changes in his environment. The sky and the grass exchanged their respective colors: the grass took the sky's blue color while the sky took the grass' green one.

Deep down, he had a flow of memories of this place _'Namek…?'_ the planet Namek was a faraway planet in the galaxy where he lived big adventures with Kuririn and Buruma, Trunks' mother, to bring back the warriors that died by the hands of Nappa, and the Saibaman for Yamucha's case.

As he turned around, he distinguished new silhouettes. This time, it was him during the fight against Frieza, Kuririn and Picoro who was brought back to life earlier and whose powers, even after his training with Kaio and fusion with Nail paled in front of the tyrant's strength. Speaking of him, the latter was near them, holding an injured Vegeta by his armor with one hand, and preparing to cut his throat with the sharp nails of the other.

As the monster was about to put an end to the Saiyan Prince's life, someone landed in the middle of the battlefield with a speed that caused wind to spread in the area around his landing spot. Everyone turned their attentions to the new intruder who revealed to be, to the big relieve of everyone except Frieza, Goku.

Goku stood still looking around him and resting his glare on Frieza, staring at him seriously "So," he said, finally addressing his new opponent "you are Frieza… I thought you were more intimidating than this."

He turned his attention away from the tyrant to look at the small group besides him and smiled "Sorry for being late, everyone." He approached the younger Gohan who had tears in his eyes: he has been waiting for his father to save him for so long. He closed the distance between him and his son and stroked his head "You sure handled it perfectly, son. I'm proud of you. Now, leave the rest to me."

The Pure Blooded Saiyan returned his glare toward the Galactic Emperor and began walking to his direction, walking past the older version of his son who was now eyeing him from the back.

At this moment, his surrounding faded into nothingness, and he was yet again in the dark, empty space. Only this time, not everything faded: his father was still here, still walking in front of him. He was walking, but the distance between them didn't change at all.

He kept eyeing him from behind: a tall, well-built man with spiky black hair. He was wearing a similar outfit as his current timeline son: an orange gi with a blue T-shirt underneath with the sleeves shorter his son's. He wore blue wristbands, belt and boots, just like his son. One of the biggest differences between their outfits was the Kanji word written on the back: his read 'Go' (悟) meaning _Wisdom_.

He was walking fearlessly in front of him, without turning back, not even slowing down his pace. He was courageous, strong, experimented and, on top of that, pure hearted: you could hardly find someone who held a grudge against him; everyone loved him for his sincerity and confidence.

In other words, he was everything Gohan to be; he wanted to succeed his father in his task, especially after the latter's death. That's when his vision ended and he was brought back to reality.

_~Change the music back to: 'Prevent it! Cell's perfect body'~_

The struggle was still going on as he was an inch from losing it. But, he couldn't let it end like this… He couldn't.

'_I'm not meeting you without putting everything I've got down here!'_ with that, his eyes widened, his teeth clenched even more and the aura surrounding him grew bigger. The roles in the struggle reversed as Gohan's **Kamehameha **was now quickly gaining ground, getting closer to 17 and 18.

In the end, the Turtles' signature technique hit the two abominations, dealing considerable damages. Gohan immediately took his fighting stance again and rushed toward the knocked down Androids to attack them. However, 17 recovered from the energy wave he took and launched a fireball at the Saiyan who deflected it just in time at the cost of his guard. Taking this opportunity at hand, the male cyborg punched the Hybrid in the face, throwing him back.

The Super Saiyan used his hand to push himself back on his feet, and automatically began jumping away from the cyborg that was following him _'He's getting closer…'_ he released from his palm three consecutive explosive energy balls before the sound of some getting closer came to his ear: 18 who was missing for a moment.

He just had enough time to use an after image technique to dodge her coming kick, before re-appearing behind her and hitting the back of her neck with his elbow. As for 17, he barely deflected two of the explosive fireballs, but got the third one straight on his face, sending him crash on a building.

As his sister was about to recover from Gohan's counter-attack, the latter quickly grab her foot and descended on the building where 17 crashed earlier at high speed, slamming her on it with all his strength, causing the construction to collapse.

The saiyan slowly landed on the ground, barely catching his breath. Of course, not too much time passed before the Androids emerged from the smoke emanating from the debris of the destroyed structures. Only that they weren't exhausted at all, but their clothes were a mess as well as their hairs. 18 arranged hers behind her ear as she usually did while 17 wiped off what looked like blood from his face with the back of his hand.

Truth being said, Gohan was already out of breath, he didn't knew how much longer he would be able to keep up this infernal rhythm.

'_No! I still didn't reach my limit! Not yet.'_ His hand clenched into a fist, so hard that he began feeling his nails cutting through his palm. The golden aura surrounded him once more, even more intensely than before, and pink lightning spread around him. His power up caused the sky to cover with dark clouds as the sound of the thunder could be heard around the area. A drop of water fell on the ground, followed by another one then two more, before it started pouring.

The three fighters stared at each other under the rain and the lightning, the usually mocking face of the cyborgs was now quite serious; they now knew that Gohan wasn't a fighter to underestimate anymore: they had to kill him today!

The two monsters exchanged a glare before nodding at one another "This thunderstorm is a perfect backdrop for your demise." Said the male Android, trying to intimidate the gashed man.

"There is no end for me… NO END!" he yelled, determinate to fight with all his will.

"We're definitely killing him this time, 17: he's beginning to get on my nerves!" said 18, decided to end this fight.

The two abominations began getting closer to each other, as if fusing into one being with the female cyborg standing behind her brother _'What are they preparing?!'_ wondered the Hybrid.

Then, without warning, they rushed toward him and, at the last moment, separated the sides, leaving him no way of escaping them. They released a fury of punches and kicks while the older Saiyan alive barely managed to block/evade them.

'_I can't keep up with them. At this rate, they'll…'_ as he was desperately fighting for his life, 17 got down and tackled him, making him lose his balance.

He turned his back on them and flew off quickly, trying to escape them. They, however, followed him closely from behind, not willing to let him get away this time. As he was about to lose them, two shining energy waves came from his sides and connected in front of him, resulting in an explosion followed with smoke. The poor Saiyan closed his eyes and used his hand to protect himself from the explosion.

As he made it out of it, he was hit on the back by his enemies, crashing on a building, before falling on the ground. "C-Curse… you…!" he managed to say as he was supporting his body with his elbow to get up.

However, he was quickly hit by a laser beam followed by another one before a rain of plasma landed all around him. This time, he knew it: there was NO escape to his fate.

He powerlessly lay on the ground as he was stroke by the blasts. His vision began blurring as his heart skipped some beats. _'So this is how it feels… to die.'_ he managed to think, as he lost consciousness _'Sorry, Trunks. It looks like the rest is up to you.'_

Gohan should have been happy: even if he was dying, he was sure that he left someone who would be able—no, who WILL save their world. Plus, he fought the Androids, the monsters that killed all his friends and loved ones, with all his strength and will and died an honorable death. So why? Why did he, deep down felt guilt and a feeling that his life wasn't fulfilled. This feeling felt so… selfish? He didn't know.

But, before completely falling into unconsciousness, he was sure that he felt a hand holding his and lifting him; was it death embracing him? He couldn't know, right now…

* * *

(Later, in a foggy area)

I was walking through a green, foggy place quietly. The area being filled with fog was already a trouble for anyone to find their ways, so knowing that I ended up here at night… I could barely watch my steps and the cold night was piercing through my skin. I just hope that I don't catch a cold, after this; no wonder nobody can be seen around here at that moment.

But, it actually was pretty convenient: I didn't want ANYONE to notice my presence here, in this Universe, especially not with what I had in hand.

As I was walking, I was carrying in my right arm the corpse of a young man. The man was badly injured, between life and death, and his clothes, some kind of orange gi and blue shirt, were in the hell of a mess. He could have died, if I didn't remember him and get one of my crazy ideas flowing through my head. I suddenly stopped in the middle of nowhere and rested my eyes on him, an evil grin drawing on my lips.

"You're lucky to be one of the characters I really respected and empathized with through the series…" I whispered while putting him on the cold grassy ground "After all, your history is an eternal cycle that repeats again and again. Isn't scary, to know that I could have another version of you instead of the one in front of me?"

I raised my hand to the sky as a blue aura enveloped me "I'll use my powers to give you a second chance in life to accomplish your dream, whether you take this opportunity or not is up to you. My power is," As I pronounced those words, a blue card formed above me, slowly descending to my palm. The card was a Tarot Card with, on the back, a blue mask drawn surrounded by a mystical circle, and on its front part, nothing: just a black space as if it was empty… Such was the strength of "the Authors' Arcana." At the moment the card reached my hand, I crushed it, empowering the blue aura around me.

I slowly lowered my hand toward the man's direction and released an energy wave in his direction. As the wave passed through his body, all his injuries were cured: no more scratched, no more blood; he was perfectly clean from any marks of the fight and even his outfit was fixed; his left arm was still missing, though.

I, however, didn't stop here "It would be a shame to keep you at this age, I guess I'll expend you lifespan even more than this." I immediately released another energy wave that passed through him and watched the changes occurring: his body was getting smaller as well as his clothes; he was getting back to his 7 years old self "Ah, and sorry but I can't do much about you arm..."

After this, I finally turn my back on him and proceeded to walk away. I glanced one last time at him from above my shoulder and said "Good luck, Gohan; son of Son Goku." before disappearing in the fog, leaving no trace of my presence.

* * *

_**FINALLY! I finished the first chapter of the first story I'm written for my two favorite mangas! So, just to make things clear before you ask any questions: I ONLY appeared here as the initiator of the story; every fanfiction author does this in a way or another, but I wanted to do it straight, plus I have the right to do something crazy once in a while, right? RIGHT?!**_

_**Then, if you are wondering whether or not Gohan's memories are erased, then stop thinking about it: he is perfectly fine, but he's younger. As for his power level, I want him to keep it the way it is, but if you guys prefer him a tiny bit underpowered, do share your opinion about it.**_

_**Well, that will do it for now, if you have any questions, suggestions, pairing ideas or complaints, do voice them through PM and reviews; I'll be glad to answer any of your questions right away (or in the next chapter, if you're a guest) as long as they are constructive for the story!**_

_**With that, I hope you enjoyed this first chapter and that you'll Review, Follow and Fav.**_

_**P.S: I won't be posting the next chapter anytime soon, since I first want to complete at least one of my two current in-progress stories ("Narukami's Journey" and "Persona Days") This should give you enough time to voice ALL what you feel about that chapter, and I hope you'll understand.**_

_**Merry Christmas and happy holidays! (^_^)**_


	2. A New World

_**Remember when I said that before resuming this story I would have to finish one of my other two in-progress ones? Well, I changed my mind: I'll continue this story every now and then, whenever I'm inspired to do so… like now!**_

_**Before we begin, let me answer the guests' reviews:**_

"_**_seeker: thank you for telling me about the site: it's better not to fall for clichés that might ruin the whole story."**_

"_**_Gaist: Hehe, don't worry: I was just asking for pairings suggestions for later in the story. And don't worry about Gohan's personality and especially his apparitions: he has his own problems (fights) to deal with already.**_

_**And if the Japanese names really are annoying, then I'll just stop using them; it's that simple, but I might do an exception with some names like Konoha, since I personally think it is better like this. As for the fourth wall breaking moment, I believe that I did mention that the first chapter would be the ONLY time I would do this."**_

_**Now that we're done with the reviews, let's begin the second chapter!**_

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**II\ A New World?**

(Somewhere, in the Land of Fire)

As the hours passed in the Land of Fire, the night gave room to the day, making the area a little brighter because of the night's fog lifting, allowing the sun's rays to spread all over the country in the early hours of the morning.

While the sunrays caressed the grassy ground, a kid could be seen, sleeping peacefully despite the cold night he spent out.

But, as the child was resting peacefully, two shadows approached him: one was a colossal silhouette while the other was of average height and both had what appeared to be white cloaks with hoods covering their faces.

The new arrivers got closer to the boy, slowly, until they were a meter away from his body.

"Why, what have we got here?" said the smaller one.

"We don't care; let's just head back to report to the Lord." the taller one said while turning his back and getting ready to move. He was, however, stopped by his companion who got closer to the body and grabbed the back of its shirt and pulled it up.

"Don't be a spoilsport: maybe we can get something out of this piece of meat…" his friend just sighed and shook his head.

"Can't you stop picking up everything you see on the road? Fine; take this cub if you're so bored, but you take the responsibility if the master gets mad!" he warned, earning an evil laugh from his teammate.

"No need to worry: he might just like it… as his dinner!" the both finally took off, laughing, before disappearing in the sky.

(Later, in the middle of a forest)

The two beings were flying above a large forest while scanning all the area around them.

"This planet is smaller than Earth," the one holding the kid said "but the inhabitants have a considerable power level without being too strong for us: this will be perfect when we find the right emplacement to release the Black Water Mist!"

"Yeah, but we'll first have to find that emplacement, especially knowing the fact that the master is picky."

They were still flying when suddenly, the smaller one stopped. His comrade noticed it and stopped as well to ask him the reason of that sudden halt.

"Take a look." he said, pointing the child with his eyes "He reminds me of someone we've seen before, what do you think?"

The other crossed his arms and lowered his head to the level of the unconscious boy he examined his face for a moment before nodding to himself.

"Umm, I've seen his face before…" he then wore a sadistic smile "Heheh, maybe it wasn't that much of a bad idea to grab him along."

"Hah, see? I always do the right thing." he narcissistically commented.

"Yeah yeah… Keep going." His friend said before powering up and flying away. The other followed him and they resumed their way.

(Inside a temple-like building)

In the middle of the forest was some kind of small temple hidden by the trees: this place was exactly where the two mysterious men were heading. Once there, they entered. The inside was just like the outside hinted it to be: small, old and dark. The building was standing with two lines of pillars and other than that, there was nothing inside other than a stone throne occupied by a small looking man hidden in darkness and also wearing a hood.

The two men approached the one sitting on the throne and, after reaching a certain distance, kneeled before him.

"Lord Garlic Jr." the narcissist one began "We are back."

The one known as Garlic raised his head to his henchman's level before asking "Did you find any decent spot to proceed with the 'operation', Spice? Vinegar?"

The buffed man, now known as Vinegar, hesitated before speaking up "Master, we searched through this entire small planet and we didn't find any lookout or anything that might be of use to spread the Mist."

Before he could continue with the explanations, his boss got up punched the throne behind him out of anger with the back of his hand, breaking it to pieces. He furiously glared at his minions and shout.

"Useless! Not only you failed to find an emplacement to release the Black Water Mist, but you also dared coming back with your mission unfulfilled?! If you can't manage to execute my orders, then there was no purpose to bring you back to life—" he stopped in the middle of his menaces as he noticed the corpse in Spice's arm.

"Spice! What are you hiding there?!" he asked still angry.

"Oh, this! Lord Garlic, you should probably take a look at this human: he looks familiar." this just made his blood boil even more.

"What?! You bring a human kid to me just because he is 'familiar'?! You deceive me, Spice!" he raised his index finger and pointed it at the man in front of him and began charging some yellow energy ball in front of it.

"P-P-Please, my Lord: have mercy!" he mumbled while trembling with fear. He closed his eyes, waiting for the blast to hit him, but it never did. When, he opened them, his master was staring at the thing he was carrying.

Garlic Jr. just noticed something with the child: his outfit. This orange uniform wasn't unknown to him.

"Spice!" he called.

"M-My Lord!"

"Bring that boy closer." He ordered. His henchman obeyed and immediately approached his master while handing the body of the child in front of him.

The monster raised his head with his thumb and index fingers and examined him for a moment before his eyes widened _'That boy… Could he be?!'_

"Lord Garlic Jr., are you alright?" asked Spice as he noticed the sudden change of expression of his master. The latter had his expression quickly switch from shock to a pure evil grin.

"Spice, Vinegar: do you guys remember why we're stuck in this unknown planet?" he asked, earning puzzled looks from his minions.

"It's because of King Demon Piccolo and his student brat, right?" said Vinegar, clenching his hands into fists at the memory of how Gohan defeated him as a kid. The boss then pointed the sleeping boy with his finger.

"Then what if I told you… That Piccolo's brat of a student is right in front of us!"

Meanwhile, Gohan began moving a little _'What… is happening?'_ he slightly opened his eyes.

"Hehe! Look, he's waking up!" said Vinegar.

'_Who is talking?"_ wondered the Saiyan while opening his eyes more. He distinguished two silhouettes surrounding him and felt a hand grabbing him from behind. He immediately had the reflex of pushing the person behind him with the back of his hand to set himself free from the grasp and jumped backward as far as possible.

Gohan stood, completely awake now, and facing the three persons in front of him: all of them had white cloak and hoods, preventing him to see their faces.

"W-Who are you?!" he asked, taking a fighting stance. They responded with laughs.

'_And…'_ He thought as he felt something weird with himself _'Why do I feel so short? My voice sounds like the one of a kid, too. Where am I?'_

"Now, my boys," The shortest of the hooded men said, getting the Hybrid back to reality "there is no need for our 'guest' to get bored so early."

As he finished speaking, he, along with his two henchmen, quickly jumped and disappeared. Gohan immediately focused on sensing their KIs and hearing their movements: they were running in circles all over the room at high speed. Occasionally, he would hear them approach him and try some sneaky attacks, but he was fast enough to block and dodge their strikes that came from almost everywhere.

At last, they all landed at a certain distance behind him. He turned and noticed that they took off their hoods meanwhile. As he stared at them, his eyes widened: those three people weren't unknown to him.

"G-Garlic?! Garlic Jr.?!" he said as he saw the smallest guy of the group which, from the start, were not humans. The half-Saiyan remembered the small blue skinned alien; he encountered him twice in his life with him barely being four years old during their first encounter, and five during their second.

Garlic Junior was the son of Garlic who was in the past Kami's rival to the title of Guardian. However, the previous Guardian saw through his evil schemes and chose Kami as the new Guardian of Earth. Furious, the Makyan raised a rebellion against the ancient Guardian, but it was useless: he was defeated and sealed, leaving his son his thirst of revenge.

If you asked Gohan, almost all the enemies he faced before have been seeking for the Dragon Balls to achieve immortality, and all of them failed. Garlic Jr., however, was the only one who was granted that wish, thus becoming impossible to kill. The two times he was defeated were similar: in both encounters, Gohan was the one who sealed him in his own dimension-trap 'The Dead Zone'. Little was known about that zone other than the fact it was made of a dark void sucking everything inside it, never to be seen again.

The two henchmen of Garlic weren't unknown to Gohan either, but it has been several years since he fought them and with him having only the Androids to care about, he forgot their names. Plus, he managed to kill them at the same time back when he fought them, so they weren't a real trouble.

Spice was the most eloquent/narcissist of the group with his white hair combed up in a similar way as Vegeta's, his light blue skin and his pink armor under his white cloak. Vinegar, on the other hand, was the most reckless/brute force oriented one of the team. He had brown hair falling to his back and purple skin. He wore a green and black armor under his white cloak. He missed the horned hat he had back when they first encountered.

There were supposed to be two other minions with the Makyan, but they were nowhere to be seen. Could it be that their chef didn't judge them strong enough to serve him again?

_~Recommended music: The fearsome Ginyu special corps~_

"Hey, kid!" said Vinegar, his voice snapping the Saiyan out of his thoughts "How about I repay you for last time?!" while shouting this, he charged energy in his hand.

"No! Not in my temple!" ordered his boss, or at least he tried because he was too late; the tough guy launched the energy wave at the kid who easily dodged it by jumping high enough. The lost attack exploded after connecting with the wall behind him.

As the explosion made clouds of dust raise and spread everywhere, Gohan immediately began powering up and gathering energy to transform.

'_Immortal or not, I can still defeat him if I destroy him completely!'_ he thought.

As he powered up, he noticed something odd: he still didn't transform into a Super Saiyan. It seemed like he couldn't go beyond his normal state.

'_Why is this? I can't turn into a Super Saiyan?!'_

"Hey, boy, it isn't wise to lower your guard, you know?" said a voice behind him. He didn't have the time to react before he received a punch on his back that sent him flying down to Vinegar.

"You're mine!" he kicked him in the stomach hard, causing his heart to skip a beat and to cough. However, the brute didn't release him from the attack and kept pressing the kick to the right to send the child fly and crash on a wall, passing through it and about to land on the ground outside.

Gohan finally snapped out of the shock-state and used his unique hand to recover and get back to a fighting stance. Spice was the first to emerge from the building and rushed to attack him. The Saiyan warrior raised his hand above his head and gathered his KI.

"Masenko…" as spice arrived in front of him he had already charged enough energy into his attack and prepared to release it "HA!" he put his hand in front of him and fired the energy wave at his opponent who was directly caught in the blast.

After the attack passed through Spice, it went to hit the temple and explode inside and a loud boom could be heard as the explosion annihilated everything on its path.

The hybrid was sure that Garlic's first henchman was dead, now, but he knew that the other one and Garlic himself escaped somehow.

'_Where are they?'_ he wondered as he scanned the area, searching for the remaining enemies. He quickly got down as he heard the noise of a kick, about to hit him at neck level. He evaded the attack and, using his hand as a support, counterattacked with a double kick to the face of his aggressor, however, he was too small and his enemy too big, so the hit barely passed between his legs.

'_Darn it. Why am I so small? Why did I get back to my child form?'_ he asked himself.

"Heheh!" Vinegar laughed as he grabbed him by the legs and pulled him up to his face's level "Looks like you didn't grow up much since our last encounter! And where is your arm, by the way?"

'_Darn it!'_ he discreetly charged some KI into his palm while the tough alien was toying around with him.

"Anyways, you will PAY FOR WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO SPICE!" he shout, preparing to punch him with all his strength. But, at that moment…

"Explosive Madan!" he quickly put his hand on the chest of his opponent and released his attack. The Explosive Madan was a version of the Masenko that had a shorter range since it was more used for defensive purposes than offensive ones. But, if an enemy was close enough, it would deal considerable damages to the poor fool and that was the fate that Vinegar met: the attack passed through his chest and came out from his back, creating a huge hole there.

Vinegar released Gohan from his grasp and slowly began to fall backward.

"C-Curse… YOU!" he yelled his last curse before his body exploded, pushing everything around him away with clouds of dust and rocks flying everywhere.

_~Stop the music~_

The Saiyan quickly recovered from the explosion and got back to his feet, immediately scanning the place to find the final opponent remaining on the battlefield.

*clap**clap*

The sound of someone clapping his hands was soon heard by the child who turned to face the short Makyan.

"Oh, would you look at that? You just killed my two henchmen. Now, because of you, I'll have to do all the work myself!"

The Hybrid took back his fight stance, preparing to counter whatever the monster had in stock for him. However, the said monster didn't have any aggressive reaction for now; he was just staring at the young Saiyan with envious eyes.

"But, there is one thing I have to tell you, kid." He started with a vicious smile on his face "Ever since that day I kidnapped you, I knew about your powers: what enormous powers for a child your age! At first, I faired it, I admit it. But then, I thought 'why not make you my student and successor?' However, Piccolo had to steal that idea from me!"

He then opened his mouth once more "But, there is still a chance for you to change your mind. How about it? You could work with me and we could rule all over the world—no, the universe!"

Alas for Garlic, Gohan didn't even hesitate before rejecting his offer "My one and only teacher was Piccolo-san! I have nothing to do with the likes of you and I won't let you have your way!"

This rejection made the alien sigh "What was I hoping: you're just like your father, and the Demon King already corrupted your mind. I have no other choice then to destroy you like a pathetic insect!" with that, he began powering up: a huge transparent circled aura formed around him along with electricity. The outburst of power caused the ground around him to crack creating a crater.

At the same time, he began metamorphosing. First, his skin changed from its pale blue color to a dark blue one and his muscles' size was beginning to increase, tearing up his cloak to pieces and remaining in some black pants and white sash. At the end of this horrific transformation, he stood in front of Gohan even taller than before now, and began cracking his knuckles to intimidate him.

"But now, none of them are here to rescue you." He provoked.

"Huh! I am more than capable to handle you by myself. I am the son of Son Goku, NEVER FORGET THIS!"

_~Recommended music: Super Warrior Crushed! I'll be the winner~_

The young Saiyan rushed forward, preparing a punch to attack his enemy. Garlic Jr., on the other hand, prepared to block it with his own. Their two fists connected, creating a shock that destroyed the ground around them while they both struggled for domination.

'_The boy's stronger than the time we last fought.'_ he thought, pushing Gohan's fist away and attempting to hit him with his other hand.

"Kyaaa!" he charged his uppercut. However, the black-haired boy dodged to the right while pushing further the Makyan's hand, making him lose his balance. He immediately proceeded to counter-attack with a spinning kick to his back.

But Garlic had just enough time to get down and evade the hit, supporting his body with one hand. He then aimed his other hand at the Saiyan and charged a dark/red energy orb.

"Rot in hell!" he launched the giant beam at him which obliterate everything on its way. However, Gohan didn't get caught in the blast; he evaded just in time by flying up. He looked down, searching for the enemy, but he wasn't there anymore: only the crater of the attack and the remaining of the temple could be seen from here.

"Are you looking for me?" that voice belonged to the one he was looking for. He raised his head to see him descending at high speed toward him, charging a punch. The single-armed boy also prepared an attack to welcome him. The Makyan got closer and closer until…

"Prepare to die!"

"Take this!"

Their fists were about to connect once more, but Gohan's passed completely through Garlic's who began to fade upon entering in contact with his opponent.

'_An afterimage?'_ he didn't had much time to think more since he felt a presence appear behind him.

"Gotcha!" the alien spread his arms and crushed the kid in bear hug. But, he ended up catching nothing but air: his arms passed through the half-human's body the same way his passed though him earlier.

"Where are you hiding?!" he shout.

He suddenly felt a hand on his belly. The hand belonged to Gohan who was standing next to him and charging energy in his palm.

He released the energy ball, throwing it in the direction of the forest along with the Makyan. The ball sent him crash on several trees before finally blowing up, creating a considerable explosion.

_~Stop the music~_

(Meanwhile, some kilometers from the battle scene)

Two men were jumping from tree to tree, in the middle of the forest. They were both dressed in similar clothing: black pants and tops, grey flak jackets and gloves with metal arm-guards. They also wore black sandals and had their own swords strapped on their back. Another thing about them was that they both had a mysterious tattoo on their left shoulders.

As for their faces, there is no way to describe them since they both wore strange white animal masks, adding something scary about them.

As they were proceeding through the forest, they heard the sound of an explosion and saw in front of them smoke rising. One of them asked the other.

"Do you think it came from 'there'?"

"Maybe… We were just asked to investigate that temple in case there is something dangerous inside it."

"I can't believe Lord Hokage is giving us, ANBU, a mission of investigation."

"Yes, but who knows? There might actually be something up with it."

They stopped their conversation here and resumed their way in silence.

(Back to the battle)

Under a mass of tree trunks, there was Garlic Jr. who was trapped. Of course, with just a trick of his KI, he was able to free himself from it, but he wanted to think about the situation at hand first.

'_What a waste.'_ he thought _'This kid is very strong, it would have been very convenient if I succeeded in making him my most loyal henchman. Curse you, Piccolo: as always, you had to get in the way! Now, it is too late: he is by far stronger than I am. But, unlike him, I'm immortal! That's it! I'll seal him in the Dead Zone, for good this time!"_

Meanwhile, Gohan was flying above the damaged forest, searching for his enemy. He knew that, immortality aside; he survived the attack he took earlier.

'_Where is he hiding, again?'_ he wondered as his eyes scanned the area. However, he soon got the feeling that his surrounding was getting darker and darker. He raised his head to the sky and saw a familiar spectacle: clouds were covering the sky above him, but those clouds were dark and had a bit of red shade.

"Looking for someone?" he turned to face the owner of the voice who couldn't be anyone other than his enemy. The monster was in the air, charging his energy to the limit and enveloped in a golden light. His iris completely vanished from his eyes and he clenched his teeth. But the worst thing was what appeared behind him.

Junior created a huge black void behind him surrounded by swirling red auras. Gohan soon felt the void trying to suck him within it, but he fought it back and landed on the ground, struggling to stay on his feet using his KI.

"HAHAHA! Are you trying to fight back the power of the Dead Zone? HAHAH! Fight as much as you want: when you'll get tired, it will absorb you like you were nothing!" the Saiyan noticed that the trees around him were beginning to succumb to the pressure and their roots gave up the struggle. Nothing got spared: trees, plants, rocks, and even animals were sucked into that terrible spiral: such was the power of the Dead Zone.

Of course, this wasn't the first time the Hybrid was witnessing such a thing: he actually lived it twice. Both times, he was the one who sealed the Makyan in his own attack. The first time, he just pushed him inside out of anger while the second time, he had to direct his attack towards the source of power of the enemy itself: the Makyo Star. Now that he thought about it…

"How did you recover your powers? I destroyed the Makyo Star when we were on Earth!" he asked.

"Huhuhu! You would like to know, right? After you insects got in my way once more, the Makyo Star disappeared along with my powers! I thought that I would be stuck for the eternity, as I was wandering into space, moving from a galaxy to another with no freedom over my moves. However, I happened to pass by this unknown galaxy, and that galaxy actually had its own Makyo Star! I admit that I hardly believed it when it happened, but here I am, stronger than I used to be. And here you are, as weak and powerless as an insect that is just waiting to be crushed!" he explained, full of himself. The boy noticed that he dropped his guard and, hiding a malicious grin, asked.

"And where is that Makyo Star?"

"Fool! Don't you know? The Makyo Star has to be behind me in order for me to open the Dead Zone! It is even shining with its magnificent light, you can't miss it!" he said. Gohan indeed notice a shining light near the void of darkness that was pretty visible despite the presence of the dark clouds. He pointed it with his finger.

"You mean this one?" he asked.

"Of course, fool—!" he stopped in his sentence; he just noticed that from the beginning, he was being tricked _'Uh-oh…'_

The warrior of the future raised his hand above his head and charged it with power.

"MASENKO" he shout, staring at the scarlet light in the cloudy sky "HA!" he put his hand in front of his target and released a powerful golden beam enveloped with electricity. The attack traveled across the sky, passing next Garlic Jr. who was watching the results of his carelessness with wide eyes still missing their iris.

"NO!" the beam finally disappeared, followed by a massive explosion. After the smoke cleared, nothing of the Makyo Star remained. The golden aura enveloping the Makyan earlier vanished and his eyes were back to normal. His muscles' size began to decrease as well as his height: he was reverting back to his puny and small form.

It wasn't long before the Dead Zone sucked him as well, without him being able to do a thing about it.

"You'll pay for this, miserable insect!" he cursed before finally disappearing in the dark void which also started to fade after this, stopping its absorption and leaving the battlefield in an incredible mess.

After a moment, almost everything was back to normal, almost. The sky was once more clear and the area was quiet. Only the damaged land remained as a proof of the battle that occurred earlier with Gohan standing in the middle it.

'_Whew… to meet Garlic Jr., once more, is something I didn't expect.'_ he thought with a smile on his face. It was true that the Makyan and his henchmen were barely a problem for the Saiyan who has grown stronger since their last encounter. However, his smile quickly faded as he wondered _'Now that I think about it, I don't know where I am either: I'm pretty sure that I was fighting the Androids. Then, I don't really remember what happened. They were about to kill me and here I am. What happened?!'_

As the memories of his worst enemies came to his mind, he felt his blood boil _'Trunks… I wonder if you are alright…'_ his thoughts were interrupted as he sensed two KI's get closer to the place where he was _'Who's that? Their KI is low, but it is higher than normal people's. Are they enemies?'_

(Meanwhile, from the two men's perspective)

The masked men we saw earlier just arrived on the battlefield. They hardly believed what they were witnessing: cut trees were spread all over the place as well as rocks, stones and all kinds of debris. There were also craters everywhere, from small ones to impressively deep ones.

"What happened here?" asked one of the men as he was sweating bullets under his mask.

"I don't know. Could this be linked to the strange change of the weather from earlier?" wondered the other, referring to the moment Junior opened the Dead Zone.

"One thing is sure, this can't be good and we might actually be in danger." stated his comrade before scanning the area. He noticed the ruins of the temple "Look! Isn't it the temple we were asked to investigate?" he said, pointing at the collapsed building.

"I think so, let's see if we can find anything useful. Once we'll be done here, we'll return to Konoha to report everything to Lord Hokage." with that, they proceeded with their researches, lifting the debris with the hope of finding some clues about what could have caused such chaos.

Unknown to the both of them, someone was watching from above and heard their conversation _'Konoha? Hokage? What is the meaning of this? Garlic Jr. did mention earlier that we might be in a totally different galaxy.'_ he judged that it would be better to go away before they notice him, so he powered up and flew away.

One the unknown masked men raised his kept staring at the sky for a moment which didn't went unnoticed by his companion.

"What's wrong?" he asked, getting him back to reality.

"I think I heard something… Anyways, let's get back to business." he said, focusing back on his mission.

(Later, somewhere near Konoha)

Almost half an hour passed since Gohan fought Garlic Jr. and left the battlefield. He has been flying since then without knowing where to head. After all, this was a completely different planet located in an unknown galaxy and the people looked kind of intriguing to him, even if they seemed to be normal humans and he couldn't quite say that he was completely a human either; he was half of a Saiyan and half of a human.

As he was gliding over the green lands, he noticed, in the middle of nowhere, what seemed like a waterfall. He decided to land there and rest a bit.

He landed near the stream under the waterfall. There, he sat down on the grassy ground and crossed his legs while putting his arm on them; he closed his eyes and began meditating peacefully, his ears hearing nothing but the sound of the water crashing on the rocks putting his mind at ease.

'_How weird…'_ he thought _'I perfectly recall challenging the Androids and I remember that they caught me in their attack. I was sure that I was dying, but here I am, in this new world that I know nothing about and with no other explanation. Plus, what happened to my body? I feel so much younger. On top of that, this planet looks a lot like Earth; I barely see a difference between the two planets except in the power level of the inhabitant. Speaking of which, can I consider them allies or enemies? I don't know… Maybe I should-'_ suddenly, he felt a presence getting closer.

Indeed, there was someone who was passing by this area and noticed the child. He got behind a tree and began examining the boy: he sure was catching his attention as he was in the middle of his meditation.

'_Hum… This is an interesting young one.'_ he thought _'I sense great power emanating from him. Great power, yet clean of any evil: I lived long, but I have never sensed something like this before.'_

The Saiyan opened his eyes and prepared to hide somewhere when he heard someone speaking behind him.

"Good morning, boy. What are you doing alone here?" the voice was calm and had a peaceful tone to it. The lost warrior turned to face the owner of such a voice: it was an old man, a very old one. He had dark skin, grey hair and beard. He wore a white traditional clothing, a haori, with a red kimono underneath, tied with a white sash.

Gohan stared at him without saying a word; he was confused about whether to consider him an ally or an enemy.

"Who are you?" he finally managed to ask, keeping calm. The mysterious old man chuckled.

"Well, I think I asked you this question first, didn't I?" he said. The young boy didn't know why, but the man in front of him had a strange aura that put him at ease, making it hard consider him a nuisance.

"My name is Gohan. Son Gohan." he finally answered.

"Nice to meet you, Gohan. I am Konoha's third Hokage." now he remembered hearing about him earlier from the two mysterious men. So he was the 'Lord Hokage' they were talking about.

"N-Nice to meet you too, Lord Hokage." he politely replied, bowing as a sign of respect. It seemed his formality amused the man.

"Tell me, you are not from Konoha, are you?" he asked which surprised the Saiyan who was now even more intrigued by the Hokage.

"Well… no, sir. Actually, I don't really know where I am, right now." he said.

"So, you are not from any other village either?" he asked again, earning a shook from the boy's head. He walked forward, getting closer to the child "Do you have anywhere to go?"

"Uh…" the Hybrid hesitated.

"*chuckle* Why don't you accompany me to Konoha? You can tell me more about you one the way." The old man suggested.

The single armed fighter didn't know what to do: follow the man called Hokage that he just met and don't if can be trusted, or decline the offer and roam in those unknown lands with maybe no way to ever see his planet again.

'_I think that I should just go with him for now… I might just learn more about my current situation.'_ he finally decided.

He looked at Konoha's leader and nodded. The latter addressed him a gentle smile and turned to the other side.

"The village is this way, shall we go?"

"Yes sir!"

"Hahah! There is no need to be so formal, my boy: try to relax more."

Now, they were on their way to Konoha: The Village Hidden in the Leafs.

_And that is how a new adventure begins for Gohan. But, can he find a way to go back to Earth and help Trunks fight the Androids? And that man called Hokage, is he really worth being trusted? Discover it in the next chapter of this story!_

* * *

_**Yes yes, I know that most of you were expecting Gohan to go straight to Konoha in this chapter and encounter immediately Naruto and some of the other rookies and begin an utopian-like life and all. But, you are in my story, here and a lot of unpredictable events can occur… that's KeyToUnivers to you, guys! Plus, we can't expect our young half-Saiyan friend to always fall between the right hands.**_

_**I hope you enjoyed this second chapter anyways! Again, if you have anything to complain about, feel free to do so, just like you did for the previous one. With that, I'll say 'till next time and take care!**_

_**UPDATE: When I posted this chapter, I forgot to mention that I created a poll so you can vote which team should Gohan be in. Do vote, please!**_


	3. Konoha

_**Disclaimer: this is a fanfiction, people. I don't own Naruto or Dragon ball in any possible way, and if you don't know those mangas/animes, then I really am wondering what you are doing here since chapter 1.**_

_**First, let me answer the guest's review and make things clear once and for all about Garlic Jr.**_

"_**_Justus: Let me give the reasons why I made Garlic Jr. appear for just a chapter. 1) I wanted him to play the role of a warm-up or tutorial for Gohan to use his new/old body and for him to notice that he lost the ability to transform. 2) I don't really have big plans for him to be a major villain in the story which immediately leads to the third point 3) I have already decided who would be the real main from Dragon Ball to appear in this story: and I am sure that you won't be disappointed, trust me!**_

_**Anyways, there is no need for you to apologize: your review was an opportunity to make things clearer about chapter 2. Thank you for reviewing and I hope you enjoy the coming chapters just as much!"**_

_**Before beginning this chapter, let me tell you in case some of you don't know it yet, that I created a poll so you can vote in which team Gohan should be. Please, do vote and remember that I'll close the poll around the time I post chapter 4.**_

_**Enjoy your reading!**_

* * *

**III\ Konoha: the Village Hidden in the Leaves**

"So," Lord Hokage said, beginning a conversation with the boy he just encountered and breaking the silence they were stuck in "Can you tell me now what you were doing alone in the forest?"

"It is a long story, sir." he replied, scratching his head nervously. Meanwhile, the leader of Konoha was studying his guest's appearance: his scar on his face was something he just noticed upon being closer to him. The child should, at most, be 7 years old, how can he get such injuries? And that wasn't the only thing odd about him… the other thing was something he noticed when they first talked, but didn't want to bring it up right away.

"Gohan, can you answer my question?" he asked, staring at the boy's left sleeve, hanging in the air "Why do you only have one arm? Did you happen to have an accident of some sort?"

"Oh, my arm..." he repeated "I actually lost it during a fight."

Now, the Hokage was very curious: for a child, a child for crying out loud! To speak about such injuries he may have gotten so casually, this was very strange: as if fighting for his life was a daily matter to him.

'_Yes… a truly interesting young one.'_ he thought, leaving silence fall on them once more.

(A day earlier, in Konoha)

Konoha was a village located in the middle of the Land of Fire. People were also calling it 'The Village Hidden in the Leaves'. It was counted as one of the most powerful Hidden Villages among the others due to its rich history with the two founder clans: the Senjus and the Uchihas, and the other powerful clans living there.

But, why take interest in this village? Because of one person living there: a child around his 7 years old, rejected by all the villagers and that would have been already banished or even killed if it wasn't for the protection of the Third Hokage himself: thanks to the wise man, nobody could lay a finger on him without expecting punishment. And not any kind of punishment: whoever would try to harm the boy would pay the price with his life and honor, and be considered a traitor to the village. But, why do they reject him in the first place? He didn't know it himself.

Right now, this same boy was sitting on a swing in the ground in front of the Ninja Academy. He was sitting there; not even swinging like a normal child should because he was thinking. His small hands where holding the swing's ropes and his head was lowered.

Today has been just like any usual day… for him, that is: in the early hours of the day, as he was walking around the village as he usually did, two housewives stared at him with hate-filled eyes. One of them whispered to the other, loud enough for him to hear.

"Look, it's that damn monster."

"Yes, I can see him. Oh my god! He's looking our way with his cursed eyes." the other added, grimacing at the sight of the said 'monster'.

"Let's just ignore him: he doesn't deserve us to waste time looking at him." with that, they both got back to their shopping.

He really didn't know what made him a 'monster', he looked like any 6 year old boy: he had blond spiky hair and his eyes were blue, blue wasn't the specific eye color of the monsters, as far as he knew. If there was something that made him different, it was his whiskers on his cheeks, whiskers that he absolutely didn't mind at all. Plus, the old man Hokage told him that he was born with them, so he couldn't do much about it and it wasn't as if this was the reason everyone looked at him the way they do and ignore him.

Not so long after that, he passed near the bar, and a drunken man who just got out, pretended not to notice him and pushed him, knocking him down. As the poor boy fell on his back, the adult barely looked above his shoulder.

"Ah, didn't see ya…" he said in a drunken voice, walking away and avoiding getting any further in bullying him: even drunk he knew what would be waiting for him if he tried anything else on him.

…

This afternoon, his destination was the playground. Upon arriving there, the place was full of live and laughter. He entered and saw no familiar figures inside: the children were younger or older, maybe.

He moved a step forward and began getting the attention of the other kids who gave up their games and began staring at him silently. Suddenly, the happy mood ruling in the area faded to give room to an unsupportable heavy tension.

The boy with the whiskers turned around to see the children's parents who were throwing at him the same glare they always threw: the dark, murderous glares that he got used to see with all this time passing. It was their fault if their sons and daughters never played with him; they were the ones who put the seeds of 'hate' in their innocent kids, and the latter were not the ones to blame.

"What are you looking at?!" he angrily shouted at them "Stop… looking at me like this!"

He soon realized that his presence was unwanted and left the yard, running. The adults followed him with their cold eyes until he eventually disappeared from their field of view.

But, one question remained unanswered: who is that boy we are following since the beginning? His name is Naruto Uzumaki. Naruto was an orphan; he never knew his parents and never knew where they were: the Hokage always avoided the subject and some villagers would tell him indirectly, mainly through whispering loudly to each others, that his parents abandoned him and never cared about him.

As an orphan, Naruto normally would be on his own in the vast world of Ninjas, but as far as he could remember, Lord Hokage has always been the one taking care of him, mostly (he didn't remember who took care of him when he was a toddler, of course), and it was just recently that he was given an apartment of his own with the Hokage being the one paying, of course.

As the sun was setting, he walked aimlessly around the village, passing by the lake. He looked at the dock and saw another boy.

The boy had black hair and their shape made Naruto immediately think about something _'Duckbutt.'_ He was blankly looking at the water, with his head pressed on his hands.

But, that boy wasn't unknown to Naruto: his name was Sasuke Uchiha, one of his classmates and a very promising Ninja: pretty much the total opposite of Naruto who couldn't even perform the most basic Ninjutsu techniques. To say the truth, Naruto really disliked him, a lot.

Suddenly, Sasuke turned and faced the Uzumaki, as if he sensed his presence. They both looked at each other awkwardly for a moment before the blonde turned his head away rather violently and the other boy did the same.

With that, Naruto resumed his walk, but he felt a little better, for some reasons: he felt like he wasn't the only one to feel alone. This was a selfish feeling, but it did feel good. Even if he was seeing Sasuke as a rival, it was still a bond, the very first bond he ever formed in his early life.

…

He walked until he reached the Ninja Academy which was obviously his 'school' if you want to call it that way. In only two days, he would go back there and get back to work because despite being an incompetent Ninja, Naruto was giving his all every day. Even when he failed, he tried again and again to improve head on which was one of his biggest weaknesses: his lack of concentration. More than once, his teacher, Iruka, would scold him for this.

He spotted the swing and sat on it, just as he was doing now _'All day long… Wherever I go, everyone ignores me.'_ He thought, tired of the way the villagers were acting with him while he was doing nothing bad. Wait… he was doing nothing bad, and yet, they hated him?

He raised his head, and an evil grin formed in his face _'If they hate me for no reason, then why don't I give them a reason to? At least, I'm sure they'll notice me after that!'_

(Today, still in Konoha)

In the early afternoon, the usually peaceful village of Konoha was pretty agitated for some reasons. Right now, a huge crowd gathered in front of the Hokage Monument. This monument was actually a giant rock on which were carved the faces of all the Hokages that ruled on Konoha. There were four of them, actually. Then, why is the Third the one ruling right now? What happened to the Fourth? It is still a little too early to talk about this.

As said before, the villagers were all in front of the monument, _'admiring'_ it, or more exactly, admiring what happened to it: the faces of the mighty Hokages were all painted! Just as if feminine make-up was used on them in a disgusting way. Everyone was shocked.

"Could the dark and red clouds of earlier have a link with this?" some asked.

"Is it the end of the world?!" others asked.

"WAHOO!" soon, the sound of a boy cheerfully jumping from a rock to another was heard, as well as the one of two men.

"GET BACK HERE, BRAT!" as fast as their eyes could see, the crowd saw a blonde boy run away from the site with, behind him, two Chunins in their green vest chasing after him.

"Try to catch me, dattebayo!" that last word made the identity of the boy obvious: it was Naruto Uzumaki!

Naruto was running as fast as his small feet allowed him to. He was carrying on one hand a filled paint can, and on the other a brush, and his white T-shirt was all covered in red paint as well as his hands and face. But, the two men were getting closer, until eventually…

"GOTCHA!" shout one of them as he caught him by the back of his shirt, lifting him effortlessly from the ground while he was struggling to get free.

"Let me go!" he ordered.

"Looks like someone's heading to Lord Hokage's office now." he said, proceeding to quickly jump to the Hokage's place with the Uzumaki in his hand, and followed by his comrade.

(Back to Gohan and Third Hokage, in front of Konoha's Gates)

After walking for some time, the duo finally arrived to destination.

"This," said the old man "is the Village Hidden in the Leaves: Konoha."

Gohan raised his head until he his eyes met the top of the giant gate in front of them.

'_Hehe, that gate is almost half as high as Vegeta when he transformed into a great Ape.'_ He thought while scratching the back of his head.

"Lord Hokage?" he asked.

"Yes, Gohan?"

"You said that there are other villages out there, in this world, right? Are they as big as Konoha?"

"The Hidden Villages are pretty similar to their respective environment: Konoha, for example, is surrounded by vast forests and green lands. This symbolizes the 'leaf'."

He marked a pause before resuming "Asking me this question is a good opportunity to suggest you something: why don't you become a Leaf Ninja? I feel that you have great potential for this."

"A Leaf… Ninja?" the warrior repeated puzzled.

"Yes, it would be the best way for you to learn more about the place and to make new friends. You did say that you were not from any other village, am I right?"

Gohan thought for a moment: maybe becoming one of those 'Leaf Ninjas' would give him more hints about his situation and find a way to go back to Earth and see Trunks again.

"I'll think about, Lord Hokage." Gohan said. The man just smiled at the young boy and finally invited him to enter the village.

Once inside, they headed to the Hokage's office. On their way, a lot of villager greeted the old man with something of uneasiness in their behavior, and looked suspiciously at the Hybrid, especially his hanging sleeve.

"It looks like walking around with one arm is pretty weird…" he noted.

"Indeed, we should find a way to at least hide it. We don't have any ways to restore a part of a body, alas."

"Hehe, don't worry, I got used to it those past months." He said giving the famous Son grin. The Hokage felt a sweat drop cooling on the back of his head.

…

"What is this?!" the old man suddenly shouted, looking at something in the distance. The half-Saiyan looked at the direction the man was looking and saw the result of Naruto's work.

"It seems someone painted the faces on this rock."

(Inside the Hokage's Office)

They hurried to the office, and once they entered two men were already there, with a child.

"Lord Hokage!" said one of them upon seeing them "The monument…" he was cut in his sentence by the Hokage.

"I saw it. Did you find the culprit?" he asked.

"Yes, sir." He answered, staring at Naruto who was sitting on the chair in front of the desk, crossing his arm and pouting.

"Naruto?! You are the one behind this?" the old man asked in disbelief.

"Yes, old man Hokage, I did it!" he answered.

The Hokage turned to the Chunins and ordered them "You may leave." The Ninjas nodded and left in a cloud of smoke.

***Poof***

"Why, Naruto? Why did you do this?!" he scolded, finally getting back to the blond child. But despite his anger, he knew the real reasons: the poor boy had enough of being considered like a ghost and all he wanted was to attract attention. The elder remembered that Gohan was still here and while looking at him, he addressed Naruto.

"By the way, let me introduce to you Son Gohan. Gohan, the boy in front of you is Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto, since Gohan is new to the village, I wanted to ask you something: could you guide him around here? If you do so, I might forgive you for what you have done earlier."

Naruto and Gohan looked at each other for a moment.

'_He's new to the village… maybe he could become…'_ Naruto thought, as his eyes bright with hope.

"That works with me!" he enthusiastically said.

"Well, I'll be glad too, Naruto!" Gohan said, also happy.

"Naruto," the Hokage said, getting back into the conversation "You may leave for now. I need Gohan for a moment."

"I'll wait outside, then." Naruto said, getting out of the office as fast as lightning.

…

The old man took the pipe that was lying on his desk and began smoking. He then looked at Gohan and asked him.

"Gohan, before you join the Ninja Academy, you will have to be officially a villager of Konoha: that is why I will need you to tell me more about you and your origins."

"Okay then…" the Saiyan said, hesitating a little. After all, who would believe that: he came from another planet, that he was the descendant of a race of elite warriors, and that he was at least fifteen years older than what looked like? Nobody in their sane mind, of course.

"What I am about to tell you is something you might not believe, and I don't have with me anything to prove that I am saying the truth." he warned.

"Say it anyways; I don't think you can lie about it." With the old man giving him the signal to begin talking, Gohan began thinking about where to start.

"First, would you believe me if I told you that I am not even from this planet?" he asked.

"You mean that you come from another planet?!" shouted the Third in disbelief, almost dropping his pipe. He took a moment to calm down and asked the Saiyan to resume "Please continue."

"So, my home planet is Earth: it is where I lived most of my life with my family and friends. But…," he marked a pause, composing his ideas: he preferred keeping the fact that he was half an alien a secret for now. "But when I was fighting two _monsters_ and was falling unconscious, I woke up here, in this world."

"Earth? I never heard of that planet before… and what are those monsters you were talking about, earlier?"

"Two powerful enemies who treated to destroy my world: I tried to stop them, but they were stronger than anything I've faced before!"

'_Which explains why he seems to come out of a war… but isn't he too young?'_

'_Trunks… please stay alive until I come back to help you.'_ he silently prayed. The Hokage noticed the dark expression on the boy's face.

'_He isn't telling me everything, but it is obvious that the least he said is true.'_ the elder thought "Isn't there anything else you can tell me about yourself? Back in your planet, did people use something called Chakra?"

"Chakra? What is that?" the warrior asked confused.

"Then how did you fight? Chakra is a combination of both you physical and spiritual strength: you can't perform your Jutsus without it: it is the source of your power, but you also need to perform hand seals." he explained.

"This sounds easy."

"But most of the techniques require your two hands…"

"Oh, I see… Anyways, that sounds like the description of KI, the energy I used back in my world. KI is the vital energy within anyone's body, but you don't need 'hand seals' to perform an attack."

"Vital energy?!" he exclaimed "Isn't it dangerous to use it? It can consume your life, right?"

"Yes, but if you can master it, you will be able to control the amount you use with no risks, even though some attacks are still dangerous for even the more experienced users." Gohan said, remembering how Tien Shinhan's Tri-Beam costed him his life the first time he died.

'_I lived long…'_ thought the Hokage while smoking _'and yet there are so many things I have yet to learn.'_ he then looked at his guest and asked "Can you demonstrate your abilities with the 'KI', please?"

Gohan nodded and raised his unique hand and began focusing his energy on his palm. Soon, a sphere of energy formed on it and swirled around itself.

"Here you go." he said, canceling his energy ball.

'_A power even greater than Chakra…'_ thought the wise man "I see… I don't think you will want to choose Chakra over you existing powers, but who knows? It would still be good to learn its basics: that is why I invite you to join the Ninja Academy."

"I gladly accept your offer, Lord Hokage." the Saiyan said with a smile.

"Good then. But, there is still one thing to do to make you an official Konoha villager: we have to design a clan of your own."

"A clan?"

"Yes: Clans are like different families with their own members and their own characteristics. Most of them have their very own 'Bloodline limits'."

"Hmmm… So basically, a clan is more like a race, right?"

"If you want to say it that way, yes, but it is still a strange way to describe them."

"Then my 'clan' here could be named… The Saiyan Clan." he said, even though he was only Half-Saiyan himself.

"Saiyan… You mean, the SAIYANS?! The planets mercenaries of Planet Vegeta?!" he asked, apparently aware of their existence "My boy, how do you know about their existence? Their Planet was destroyed years ago; it disappeared! Nobody is supposed to know about them, nowadays!"

It looked like Gohan dug his own grave… Now he couldn't lie anymore about his other half of blood.

"W-Well, it's kind of complicated…" he said getting a nod from the Sarutobi who wanted to hear the story.

"Planet Vegeta was destroyed several years ago. But, there actually were five survivors who happened to be away from the planet. The youngest of them was a baby who was sent on Earth to conquer it."

'_Was it him?"_ the Hokage wondered.

"However, this same Saiyan hit his head while falling from a cliff and forgot everything about his origins and his personality changed from an aggressive beast to the one of a calm child. This Saiyan was none other than my own father."

"Then you are a descendant of that race?" asked the Third.

"I actually am Half-Saiyan from my mother's side. Plus, there isn't any other Saiyan left: they all died. Three of them were evil and we had to kill them, one of them actually joined us but was killed by the enemies we were talking about earlier along with most of my friends."

"So, you are the last Saiyan remaining?" asked the old man, getting a shook from the Hybrid.

"There is also the son of the Saiyan who joined us: we were the last line of defense of our planet, but here I am: stuck here, and I don't even know if he's still alive! He is all alone between the hands of those heartless monsters and I can't even help him!" the poor boy began losing his cool: for the first time since they met, he raised his voice and freed his anger which surprised Lord Hokage.

When he went all out fighting the Androids, he went there with the goal of protecting Trunks with his own life: ultimately destroying the foes or dying there, the conscious clear from any regrets. He didn't want to find himself in another world at peace, away from the battlefield where he left his brother.

The leader of Konoha felt bad for Gohan: for a child his age to be introduced to horrible things such as wars, violence and deaths of people close to him, this was unthinkable and sad. Speaking of which, he didn't know yet how old the boy was.

"Sorry about this: you are not responsible for what is happening to me, right now." the warrior apologized, looking down in shame.

"Do not worry about it, Gohan. If you are from another planet, I really don't know how to help you: traveling between planets is something impossible for us." The kind old man told him "By the way, I still don't know how old you are."

"Oh… Uh… Well…" now that he thought about it, he didn't know himself: he should be a 23 years old adult, but he somehow got younger… but how much? Suddenly, something like a flash hit his head and he immediately said "I'm seven years old, sir."

"The same as Naruto." pointed the elder, trying to get away from the subject they were stuck in earlier "Speaking of him, he must have been waiting for you for a moment. You can join him, now. But first, I already invited you to join the Ninja Academy, right? So to let you know, the classes will begin in two days. I will be expecting you to take this opportunity to get more familiar with Konoha and its inhabitants, and also to befriend your classmates."

"Fine, then."

"But first, we should find you a place to stay. Why don't you take the available apartment next to Naruto's? You would rather live close to your friends, right?" he walked to his desk and opened a drawer. He searched inside it and took a key and coins that he handed to the warrior "Here is the key and some money: use it for food and to get something to hide your injury."

"Thank you very much, Lord Hokage. And about my Clan name, I think I will avoid the 'Saiyan' as you suggested and go for one like the 'Son'." Gohan said.

"Yes, it would be wiser to take your family name. I am happy to tell you that you are now officially a villager of Konoha." He marked a pause before resuming "Gohan, can I ask you a favor?"

"Sure, what is it?"

"It is about Naruto."

"Yes?"

"Well, most of the villagers don't quite appreciate him, and he doesn't have many friends: I am asking you to be especially nice with him, he is not bad kid and he feels really lonely since he doesn't have parents."

"Why would the villagers dislike him? Isn't he a child like the others?" questioned the Saiyan.

"Alas," the elder shook his head "he is different from the others: he has something special and that is why everyone avoids him. All I am asking you is to make him feel less alone. Can you do that for me?"

"No problem, I'll be his friend."

"Thank you Gohan, I hope the two of you get along well."

"We will. Thank you, Lord Hokage, and goodbye." the Saiyan said getting out of the office, silently.

'_Son Gohan… I hope he finds happiness here, in Konoha.'_ thought Sarutobi, smoking his pipe with a smile on his face.

(Outside the Hokage's Tower)

Gohan stepped out of the Hokage's Tower and immediately saw Naruto who has been waiting here for almost an hour.

"Man, I have been waiting here for an eternity! What were you doing up there with old man Hokage?" the energetic blond asked.

"Well, he needed me to tell him some things about… Naruto? What are you looking at?" the black haired boy asked, noticing that Naruto was staring at a part of his body while his was shaking.

"W-W-Where is y-y-your ARM?!" he shouted in horror, apparently noticing Gohan's missing arm.

'_How many times was I asked this question today?'_ he wondered, sighing.

"No need to be worried, it is no big deal, really." he tried to calm the Uzumaki down, scratching the back of his head.

"I've never seen that kind of thing before, dattebayo…"

"By the way, do you know any clothes store or something like that?"

"Ummm…" Naruto began thinking, closing his eyes and scratching his cheek with his finger "Oh yeah! There is one in the village. Let's go!" he said, running. Gohan immediately began following him.

…

When Naruto stopped, they were both in front of a shop. Just like the others, it was mostly made with wood and was pretty small.

"You can enter." The blond kid said, staying back.

"Aren't you coming inside with me?" the Hybrid asked confused with the attitude of his companion.

'_If he discovers how the villagers treat me, I can say goodbye to the hope of having a friend!'_ the Uzumaki thought.

"Well, I don't think you will take too long, so no need for me to come with you!"

"If you say so…" he said. He entered the shop and looked around him: even if it was small, it was well organized. All kinds of clothes were exposed inside, the ones for males on a side and the ones for females on another. On the walls were suspended all kinds of hats while on the floor he could see shoes, mostly sandals.

"Good afternoon, my boy." said a voice coming from the front. Gohan found himself facing the shop's owner: an old lady wearing glasses "What brings you to my shop?"

"Well, ma'am, I wanted to know if…" he thought for a moment, not sure of what kind of vest he wanted. He wanted something that would hide his arm since he would have to interact more with children his age, thing he never did before and made him quite nervous. But at the same time, he wanted something that would fit with his current outfit. An image of his father wearing piccolo's white cloak popped in his head and he smiled a little.

"Yeah, I wanted to know if you could make me a white cloak and add some weights to them, please?" he asked. The lady chuckled.

"Oh my, you want to train with weights already? Children your age shouldn't, it could ruin you small bones." she said, amused. So training with weights wasn't unusual here, after all.

"Don't worry ma'am, I'm used to those kinds of trainings." he said, doing his best not to expose the other side of his body so she doesn't notice his missing arm. Conveniently, the lady seemed to have some optical problems which made it easier for him.

"How much does your cloak have to be weighting? And how is its shape?" she asked

"I actually want the cloak to cover my arms and to have shoulder guards… and its total weight should be around… 300 Kilos!" he explained: he needed to become strong enough so when he comes back to Earth, he'll be strong enough to defeat 17 and 18.

There is no need to describe the expression of the shopkeeper whose eyes were almost out of their lobs "300 Kilos?!" she repeated in disbelief and shock "Do you want to end your life?!"

"No, I want to train with them. Is it possible, please?" he asked. She readjusted her glasses and opened the door behind her, entering another room.

"I'll be back." she said, closing the door behind her.

…

…

Gohan stood in the middle of the room for almost half an hour, doing nothing. He was thinking about how it would be to live as a Ninja. When you told him about the ordinary ninjas, he would immediately think about Clans, people wearing black outfits, kunais… he was really far from expecting to encounter them in real life, and he wasn't suspecting the existence of Hokages and such things.

The positive point was that Ninjas constantly had to train to get stronger which was pretty convenient for him, if you asked his opinion. He remembered that even after his father's death, his mother was still obsessed with him studying to become a scholar which was one of the reasons he left his home years after that: to train without being disturbed.

But still, he missed his mother a lot: she wanted nothing but his well-being… and all of this because of the Androids' tyranny which made his hate towards them even greater.

Finally, after a long enough wait, the old woman came out of the room "Come and tell me if you are satisfied with the cloak. But trust me, it is very heavy, so if you see that you overestimated your capacities, I'll reduce the weights."

Gohan entered the room which obviously was the sewing room where the shop owner would take care of preparing her customers' clothes. There were also many sorts of materials on the room's shelves: fabrics of all colors, steel, smithy tools…

"Here is your cloak." she said pointing at Gohan's new outfit. He walked toward it and tired to lift it: it sure was heavy, just as he wanted it. The cape itself really looked like Piccolo's, just covering the arms in addition.

"I had it ready and all that I needed to do was to add an impossible quantity of weights. I doubt you will be able to lift…" she stopped in the middle of her sentence as she saw the warrior grab the cape and wear it.

"Thank you, ma'am! How much do I owe you for this?" he asked.

"Six… Thousand… Ryos…" she said, with her mouth wide open.

'_So that's their currency… Back in my world, we used Zenis.'_ Gohan searched in his pocket and took the money Lord Hokage gave him: he had a total of 10000 Ryos! He paid the woman and got out of the store where he found a half asleep Naruto, pressing his back against the wall of the shop.

"Hey, I'm back." The blond jumped back, apparently he really was about to sleep there.

"You took so long…" he looked at Gohan's cape with lights in his eyes "This looks cool!"

Suddenly, a small noise was heard.

"What was that?" the Saiyan asked, looking all around the area.

"Heheh, I think it was my stomach." the whiskered boy said. Right after that, an enormous noise was also heard.

"And I think this one was mine…" the other kid said with his signature grin.

"I know! Why don't we go to Ichiraku?"

"Ichiraku? Is it a restaurant?"

"Yes! Old man Teuchi sells the best Ramen of the world!" Naruto enthusiastically said.

"Why not?"

"Great! Ramen! Ramen! Ramen!" the blond began singing happily _'I can't wait to eat my Ramen with a friend!'_

…

They walked until they arrived in front of a restaurant; one of those traditional restaurant that where only separated from the outside by a curtain and that had a bar with some chairs in front of it. Upon entering, they saw a middle aged man with slanting eyes. He had a chef hat and a white cooking apron.

"Hey, Naruto." he greeted "Here for some Ramen, right?" he then noticed Gohan's presence with the prankster and smiled, apparently happy "Oh, you made a friend? That's great! Let's celebrate: you two can eat as much of my Ramen as you want, for free today!"

"Great! Thanks old man Teuchi!" to say the truth, the cook was very happy to see Naruto with a friend: he and his daughter, Ayame, were among the rare villagers who treated the blond normally. They even considered the kid 'their best regular customer' and would sometime, on special occasions, let him have free Ramen. And today was a special occasion; Naruto finally had a friend with him, a friend his age, the second bond he ever had right after Sasuke, his rival.

They sat in front of the bar and Teuchi put a bowl of Ramen in front of each of them. They immediately grabbed their chopsticks and began eating their noodles at high speed.

'_That kid's appétit is just as healthy as Naruto's…'_ the chef thought while looking at the Saiyan, preparing more of his Ramen.

…

Some minutes later, the bar's table was full of empty bowls: five were aligned near Naruto and fifteen in front of Gohan… who still was eating an sixteenth! The two others were looking at him in shock as he was devouring his meal with the same appétit he had when he started eating.

'_He eats even more than me?!'_ thought Naruto.

'_Saying that he ate as much as Naruto was an understatement… HE EATS WAY MORE! Am I really cooking for free?'_ Teuchi wondered, discovering the never ending hunger of the Saiyan Race.

"B-By the way, boy: we still didn't get introduced. I've never seen you around here, right?" said the cook, starting a conversation with the Hybrid. Gohan swallowed the noodles in his mouth down his throat and answered.

"Sorry, sir. My name is Son Gohan, and I am new to Konoha."

"Nice to meet you, Gohan. I am Teuchi, Konoha's Ramen cook. But, you know this already since you already ate 'some' of my Ramen…" he said, looking again at the mess of bowls in front of him.

"Old man Teuchi! Do you know why the sky became black this morning?" Naruto asked, remembering the strange result of Gohan and Garlic Jr.'s fight. The Saiyan, understood it and decided to stay silent for the moment, a little embarrassed to have something to do with it.

"Oh, I saw it too. Umm, I wonder what happened: maybe it's just some evil spirits that came to warn us about our behaviors…" the cook said, trying to scare the kids "Speaking of which, Naruto, what was the big idea? Painting the Hokages' faces like this is far from being recommended, you know?"

"I did it because…" he grabbed his chopsticks and pointed it at the man "one day, I am going to surpass all four of them, and become Hokage myself, Dattebayo!"

The words of the enthusiastic blond made Teuchi smile, and the Saiyan question himself.

"You want to be the village's next leader?" he asked.

"The Hokage isn't only the leader of the village: he's the strongest Ninja of the country!"

'_I did sense that Lord Hokage's was stronger than all the people here, but now I'm sure about it…'_ the Hybrid's thoughts were interrupted by a voice coming from inside the shop.

"Dad! I am back!" said the voice of a child behind the man.

"Oh, Ayame. You brought all what I asked you to get?" he asked.

"Yes, dad."

"Ayame, would you come here for a second?" he asked, before turning back to Gohan "Let me introduce to you my daughter, Ayame."

A girl came in front of them; she was around here twelve years old and had brown long hair and eyes, she wore a white apron and bandana. Her hair was held in a ponytail.

"Yes?" she asked before noticing the presence of the boys "Oh, hi Naruto, and…" she looked at Gohan, thinking if she knew him or not.

"Ayame, this is Gohan, he's new to Konoha." her father said, introducing them.

"Oh, nice to meet you, Gohan-kun." she said, smiling.

"Uh… Nice to meet you too, Ayame-san." Gohan said, his face becoming slightly red: it seems impossible, but he never met a girl his age before: the only persons from the opposite gender he knew were: his mother, Bulma and Lunch… all of them were older ladies, after all.

"Anyways," said Teuchi, getting back inside the conversation "did you have enough, Gohan?" he asked looking once more at the pile of empty bowls in front of the boy who, upon noticing how much he ate, scratched his head, nervously laughing.

'_Hihi, he's cute…'_ the girl thought, slightly blushing while looking at the new villager.

"By the way, Naruto." Gohan said, this time talking to Naruto "Can you show me more around here, especially the Ninja Academy?" he asked.

"No problem! Let's go!" he answered, getting up from his seat.

"OK, thanks for the meal, Teuchi-san!" Gohan said, also getting up and bowing to thank him which surprised the cook.

'_Nowadays' youngsters aren't this polite… is he really Naruto's friend?'_ he wondered.

"Um… sure, glad you enjoyed you meal." he said, waving at the two young boys who were now heading to the Academy. He and his daughter then stared back at the army of empty bowls on the bar.

'_Polite, but eats a lot… to think that they ate all this for free...'_ he thought.

…

As the sun was setting, the two new friends were heading to the Ninja Academy, the place that would be Gohan's new school in a couple of days. Actually, this would be his very first time in a real school with a teacher and classmates. Whatever Ninjas were learning in their schools, he was very excited to attend classes for the first time.

On their way, Gohan noticed that a lot of people were looking at them: at him with curious eyes and at Naruto with disgusted ones which made the warrior remember Lord Hokage's words.

"Naruto?" he asked.

"What?"

"Why do I feel that everyone is not happy to see you? You did paint the Hokage's Monument, but this isn't a reason for them to hate you, right?"

"That monster again!" said the housewife Naruto saw the previous day, talking again with a friend of hers "Whenever he's around, there is always a catastrophe about to land upon us."

At this moment, Naruto's usually happy expression changed to a sad one. His head was now hanging low, with his sorrowful eyes looking down. His chin was trembling, showing that he was at the verge of tears.

"There is no need to hide it anymore, right?" he said "The villagers… They… They all hate me since forever. And I don't even know why!"

"You mean, they've always been like this with you?!" the Saiyan asked, shocked to learn such a thing.

"Yeah, wherever I go, it's always about me being a 'monster' or being ignored. That's why I did that prank in the first place! I wanna show them that I exist!" he shouted. Then, he raised his head and the sadness in his eyes was replaced by burning flames of determination.

"And that's why I'll become the next Hokage: they will acknowledge my strength, Dattebayo!" he yelled, making sure that all the people around them heard it which worked, since they turned to face him, before getting back to the matters they had in hand.

Gohan stared at Naruto as he was now smiling confidently, before smiling himself.

'_I can't help but see Trunks through him… Naruto Uzumaki, you really seem to be something.'_ He thought.

"Then I'll help you to become stronger. Is that OK with you?" he asked.

"For real?" the blond asked, surprised that the warrior was still even willing to speak with him.

"For real, we're friends, after all." he said. Those words had a strong impact on the lonely child: he never heard them from anyone before, let alone from a friend.

"Anyways," the Hybrid said "where is that Academy? Are we getting closer?"

"Oh, yeah! It right there!" he pointed a huge building by his index finger: it was right under the Hokage's Mountain and was connected to the Hokage's office. It also had the kanji word for 'Fire' written on it (火). They both approached it.

"Woah! So the Academy is connected to Lord Hokage's office? It sure looks huge: I bet it must be fun to study there with teachers and classmates." the impressed Saiyan said, causing the blond to fall back with his legs up.

"Are you crazy?! This, FUN?! This is hell: once inside, you can't get out for the next six hours! SIX HOURS OF CLASSES, DATTEBAYO!"

"I thought it was good to learn new things…" the nerdy side of Gohan said.

"Yeah, you mean boring: just wait 'till you see it yourself." apparently, the two of them will never agree one that point. The sun's light was beginning to fade even more: night was coming.

"It late… maybe we should head back home." the Hybrid said, looking at the sun that was beginning to disappear behind the far away mountains and at the red/orange twilight sky that left some stars appear already.

"Where do you live, by the way?"

"According to Lord Hokage, my new house is right next to yours." that last bit of information caused a big smile to draw on the whiskered boy's face.

"Really? That's cool!" they then turned back and headed to their apartments while happily talking about all kind of things such as: the different distractions Naruto had in Konoha, Ramen, their teacher whose name was Iruka, Ramen, Naruto's next prank… and Ramen.

…

By the time they arrived home, it was already dark outside: the streets were lightened by lampposts and were filled with people joining their domiciles. They entered the building and climbed some stairs before Naruto stopped.

"Here it is! I live here." He said, looking at a door before turning to the one next to it "And your apartment must be there."

"Thanks, Naruto." Gohan said, searching in his pocket for the key of his new place "Well, see you tomorrow."

"See ya!" the blond waved goodbye to his new friend, taking his own key and entering his apartment. They closed their doors at the same time.

…

Gohan entered his apartment, locking the door behind him. His hand, then, searched for the switch to turn on the light.

Once he found it and turned it on, he was able to scan the room where he was: he had in front of him a small kitchen with all what he needed if he wanted to cook something. But of course, he didn't know how to cook, so it was mostly useless, except the fridge which could be useful to keep his drinks (water, lemonades…) fresh.

There also was, in the middle of the room, a small square table with four chairs and an empty vase on it. He soon noticed two doors: the closest one was to his right, and the second in the other side of the room.

He first opened the closer door and took a look at what was behind it. He in front him what seemed to be the bathroom, a pretty simple one with: sink, shower…

He closed the door and decided to check the last room which was none other than the bedroom. Again, it was small room and surely the one where he would spend most of his time in the house, resting/sleeping. The room obviously had a bed, a desk which would be useful if he had anything to write, an alarm clock near the bed, a closet and a bookcase which's shelves didn't contain any books yet.

'_So this is where I'll live for the time being, huh?'_ he thought. Not that he wasn't satisfied with it, but…

'_Well, I need to sleep, now.'_ with that, he took off his cape and slowly put on the ground, near his bed. He also removed his orange top and boots, putting them inside his closet. He turned off the lights and got under the cover, trying to get some rest after the events of the day (fighting Garlic Jr., meeting the Hokage and Naruto…).

(Gohan's Dream)

_~Music Recommendation: The monster Freeza v.s the Legendary Super Saiyan~_

Gohan was walking in the streets of a big city, crowded with people walking everywhere. It looked like any usual day in this place: the giant buildings around him, the blue sky above, the sound of people and cars…

As the Saiyan was walking, he noticed that the further he was proceeding, the further the noise around him would fade and the lower the crowd around him would be.

…

He was still walking. Now, his whole environment changed from the active city he was to a disturbing vast space: the voice of the people and the people themselves disappeared, he was beginning to notice cracks on the roads and on the buildings, and the blue sky was beginning to get covered with dark clouds.

***BOOM***

Soon, the silence was broken by huge explosion that shook the ground. Gohan closed his eyes and used his hand to protect himself from the blinding light.

When he re-opened them, what surrounded him was total chaos: almost all the buildings around him have collapsed and the whole place was now submerged by fire. The noise of the people came back to his ears, but this time, it wasn't the normal sound of talks; it was all about screams of horror and panic.

He looked around him and saw a corpse, lifelessly lying on the ground. He hesitantly approached it, stepping on the chaotic road, and when he got close enough, he recognized the person in front of him.

"Yamcha-san!" he called, running to his side and kneeling. He tried shaking his body and calling him, but no answer came from the bloody body: he was dead.

The Hybrid raised his head only to see…

"Tienshinhan-san! Krillin-san!" his two bald companions were also on the ground, covered in blood and burns they surely got from fire beams. Gohan stood in the middle of this apocalypse, powerless, until a voice snapped him out of his reverie.

"Don't just stand here doing nothing, son of Kakarot!" that voice was way too familiar for him, even after all those years.

"V-Vegeta-san?" to his right was a man with black hair and eyes. He wore a white damaged armor, blue clothes and white gloves and boots.

"You're a Saiyan: a race of proud warrior! Fight as one!" as he pronounced those words, a furious golden aura enveloped him and his eyes' color changed from black to green and his hair from black to blond. He flew off at high speed, right through the fire barrier in front of them.

Sounds of violent punches connecting and explosions were heard, before a final scream followed by a succession of blasts reached the Half-Saiyan's ears… silence, then, ruled again.

Gohan used his KI to clear the path in front of him and get rid of the fire. He ran inside the devastated field where Vegeta fought, but found nothing left of the Saiyan Prince, nor of his opponents: only the craters remained as a proof of the battle.

"Gohan!" called another familiar voice above him. He raised his head to see a green skinned man that he knew too well, flying in the air.

"Piccolo-san!" he powered up and flew to join him as fast as he could.

As he was getting closer to the Namekian, something appeared in front of him, preventing him from progressing. The 'thing' that was standing on his way was a man with blue eyes and black shoulder-length hair. The red ribbon-shaped logo drawn on his black T-shirt and his orange bandana wrapped around his neck made his identity no mystery to the young boy who felt his blood boil upon recognizing him.

"Seventeen!" he shouted with venom in his voice.

"Good, you remembered my name, Gohan." He said ironically, a mocking smile on his face.

The kid immediately tried to punch his enemy in the face with his unique hand, but his attack was effortlessly dodged by the Android.

"Too slow!" he then tried another punch which was dodged just like the previous one, and then he released a fury of kicks and punches, all dodged/blocked like nothing.

'_Darn it.'_ He thought as he was flying away from his enemy, catching up his breath.

"Tired already? I wonder if Goku would have been more challenging than that, if he didn't die that is." suddenly, the Hybrid noticed something falling from the sky. Upon looking better, the thing revealed itself to be Piccolo who got defeated by Android 18.

"Piccolo-san!" he now ignored 17 and rushed at high speed to catch his mentor who was about to crash on the ground.

'_Just a little more!'_ he extended his hand to catch the Namekian. He was going to arrive right in time _'That's it!'_ he was about to get a grip on his purple gi when…

***BOOM***

As he was about to catch him, a KI blast came to hit the green skinned alien and exploded upon entering in contact. The explosion pushed Gohan back at high speed before he recovered. He saw a massive cloud of smoke enveloping the area where he last saw Piccolo. He then saw the corpse of the latter emanate from the smoke, spinning, before finally crashing on a building which collapsed on him. One thing was sure: he was dead.

"P-Piccolo-san!" the desperate call of the Saiyan was, of course, not getting any answer. He flew as fast as he could where his teacher landed, but instead of getting closer, he had the feeling that he was actually getting further away from the spot, as if sucked by some invisible void.

Soon, he far enough to see the whole city becoming smaller and smaller as he was being sucked away from it, until he was far enough to see the whole Earth.

Even from space, he could hear the sadistic laugh of the Androids which was a torture for his ears.

"No… No!" he yelled.

_~End of the Music~_

(Gohan's Dream Ends)

"NO!" Gohan suddenly woke up from his nightmare, covered in sweat and out of breath. He sat on his bed, catching back his breath and collecting his thoughts back. That was right: he was in that village called Konoha… far from his planet… far from the Androids who surely were killing more people as he was here, sleeping. He looked at the clock to see that it read 1:00 a.m.

'_DARN IT ALL!'_ he got up and opened the closet to take his boots and wore them, not taking his gi or cape. He rushed out of the apartment and made his way out of the village. Where was he going? As far as possible from here: he needed to be alone for now.

…

As he arrived in front of the gates of Konoha, he saw that they were closed: of course, the security was reinforced at night for obvious reasons. He silently began powering up and, quickly looking if anybody was around, took off, flying above the high walls of the village.

What he ignored was that there actually was someone watching him from far away with a crystal ball, but thankfully, the person was someone of trust.

'_Hum… Gohan, what is wrong with you?'_

…

When Gohan stopped flying, he was right above the waterfall where he encountered Lord Hokage. He decided to land there.

'_I need… I need to become strong enough to face them again! They will pay!'_ he furiously thought, determined to sacrifice everything to get back to the Androids and defeat—no, destroy them! Because of them, he lost all the important people to him… or so he was thinking right now.

He began charging energy into his whole body, preparing to divide it. A golden aura enveloped him, completely covering him.

"Hnnn… YAA!" suddenly, another Gohan appeared right in front of him: a perfect copy that you couldn't distinguish from the other!

The Saiyan looked at himself right into the eyes, before both jumped backward, taking their fighting stances.

"THEY WILL PAY!" he shouted, as he and his clone charged at each other at high speed, each preparing a fist.

…

…

After several minutes of none stop assaults, the hybrid stood mid-air, barely able to breathe. His whole body was covered with blood and bruises, and his clothes were a thorn mess, now. He just managed to K.O. his copy which immediately after vanishing gave him back his full power, and also his share of damages.

During that fight, he tried again to transform into a Super Saiyan however, he was unable to get his power boost. He also noticed that he was getting tired way too fast, surely because of that body of his.

"I… need to… need to… become…" soon, his vision blurred and his head began feeling really heavy. He tried to struggle to stay conscious, but he soon fell from where he was, landing hard on the grassy ground, creating a crater.

The land around him was full of marks of the battle: cut trees, rocks spread everywhere along with dirt, holes on the ground… and Gohan himself in a pitiful state.

Out of nowhere, a silhouette appeared and walked to the unanimated body of the child.

'_I can't believe he did all this alone, to himself: he definitely didn't tell me everything about his past, earlier.'_ thought the man who was none other than Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage.

He lifted the Hybrid and walked away, taking him along.

'_I would have preferred not to do this, but I need to know the whole story.'_

* * *

_(Narration)_

_Gohan have joined the village of Konoha and met Naruto Uzumaki. But, the shadows of his past are still haunting him. Without his Super Saiyan powers, will he be able to stand in front of the Androids if he ever meets them again? And what is the option left for Lord Hokage to know the truth about Gohan's dark past? Do not miss the next chapter of this story!_

* * *

_**Okay, this chapter was supposed to be posted waaaaaaaaaaaaay earlier. But because of some radical mistakes, I had to re-write almost the whole chapter over… and I also wanted to put as much events to avoid showing them again in annoying flashbacks. Personally, I have nothing against them, but using the same ones over and over again could get repetitive!**_

_**Anyways, I do hope that you enjoyed this OVER 9000 words chapter and that you will visit the poll in my profile page and vote: your opinion is important! Plus, I have everything planned for each of the alternatives, so vote the one you prefer :)**_

_**See you in the next chapter and do tell me if you see anything wrong with this one!**_


	4. Dragon Ball

_**Here comes chapter 4! It could've been posted earlier, but I recently had a problem with my internal HDD and lost the previous version I started. But it isn't really all negative, since I personally think this remake (if you wanna call it that way) came out better.**_

* * *

**IV\ Dragon Ball**

(Hospital Room – Konoha)

We resume our story a few hours from where we left it, early in the morning, in one of the rooms in Konoha's hospital.

It was a common hospital room, not spacious but not small and all painted in white, a color that helps the patients feel more at ease. However, there always was a smell of alcohol and other medicines that filled these rooms which, on the other hand, didn't help some people since they knew that this smell always reminded them of where they were and that they wouldn't be able to leave anytime soon. That's why, like in every hospital room, there were windows that helped to evacuate that terrible smell and bring fresh air along with bright sunlight to those unhappy persons. Of course, the personal of the hospital would open them only for short periods during the day and would close them for all the night.

But let's get back to the inside of the room. It had all what a hospital room needed: blue curtains to separate the beds and that were closed during operations and sleep time, bedside tables made of wood, each having a vase of flower on them and being built with drawers and cupboards, surely containing medicines of all kind to deal with basic injuries. And finally, beds, three in this room. Two of them where positioned on the right side while the other was on the opposite, on the left. All three were the same; they were made of metal and had the same kind of mattress with blue blankets and white pillows on them.

But, there actually was a difference between the three beds. The first one on the right had something, or more accurately, someone sleeping on it. There also was someone else in the room, a man, who was sitting on a chair that was next to the occupied bed and he was watching the sleeping person that was a child.

The man was wearing the green Konoha vest which meant that he was either a Chûnnin or a Jônin of the village and was also wearing the Leaf's forehead protector that was of purple color. He had long blond hair that were messy on the front and tied in a ponytail on the back. His eyes' color was between blue and green; it was hard to tell. By looking at his facial features which included some very light wrinkles, you could tell that he was in his early thirties.

As we said above, he was watching a child, maybe his son, sleep on the hospital bed, soundlessly, with bandages covering his forehead, but still revealing his black hair. His arm, since he only had one, along with other parts of his body were hidden by the blanket and his hospital clothes.

The man examined the boy while resting his elbows on his legs and supporting his head with his two hands. After a moment, he closed his eyes and sighed heavily.

'_That kid… He sure is something, isn't he?'_ he thought, reopening his eyes and looking at the dirty bandages in the trash can near the bed _'The Saiyans sure are scary, but he is different: I don't think the Hokage was wrong to trust him, and his strength may only be a gift for the village.'_

"Hm…" a feeble noise was heard, coming from the boy: he seemed to be waking up from his slumber.

"So you are finally awake." was the first thing the boy heard upon awakening, before even opening his eyes. He turned his head toward the blond man beside him and stared at him while whispering this question.

"What happened?"

"Your name's Gohan, right? Hum… I shouldn't even ask this question since it's obvious enough."

Now Gohan had his eyes completely opened and was able to identify his interlocutor: it wasn't anyone he knew or ever encountered, the only thing he was sure of was that the blond man was wearing the same outfit as the Hokage's henchmen which hinted that he was the one who brought him here.

Speaking of 'here', he actually didn't know where he was. He took a sitting position on the bed and looked all around him. The room's furniture and the medicines' smell spreading inside of it helped him to realize quickly that he was in a hospital room.

It is then that it hit him.

'_What was I thinking? If I keep on rushing things like this, I won't even make it back to Earth in one piece…'_ he thought, remembering the 'training' he did the previous night and realizing how stupid it was for him to push himself to near death. Now that he thought about it, he felt a lot better, as if he wasn't injured at all to begin with. Sure, he must have been healed while he was asleep, but for his body to recover this fast, his Saiyan blood wasn't the only thing that helped: the people around here must be very skilled with healing methods.

"Are you feeling better?" asked the man, getting back the attention of the Hybrid who answered with a nod.

"Excuse me sir, but… what happened?" he asked.

"You mean, after you fell unconscious? Thankfully, Lord Hokage found you and brought you back to the village so you could be healed." he paused for a moment before releasing a small laugh "I don't know what's the most impressive: how strong you were to cause yourself that much damage or how fast your body heals."

Gohan remained silent, closing his eyes to think better. Silence reigned once more in the room.

"By the way," the adult said, breaking the silence for the second time "since I know you name, it's only fair that you know mine. I am Inoichi Yamanaka."

He extended his hand to Gohan.

"N-Nice to meet you Mr. Yamanaka." the Saiyan said shaking the hand Inoichi gave him.

"Well, you seem to be fine, so I think you'll be able to get out of here today." The man said getting up from his chair "When you can, try to come to Hokage-sama's office; he wants to talk with you. You should find your clothes inside the cupboard."

He turned to the door and walked toward it. But before opening it, he turned again to face the kid and told him with a smile.

"If you need any help here in Konoha, feel free to ask me or my wife, you should find us in the Yamanaka Flower Shop: you can't miss it."

"Uuh… Thank you very much Mr. Yamanaka." with that, Inoichi left, leaving Gohan alone for a moment. The new villager decided to lay on his bed and rest a little.

'_I still need to find a way to get even stronger, no matter what!'_ he thought, before sleeping a little more peacefully.

(Meanwhile – Hokage's Office)

What is it to be a Hokage? The Hokage is the chef of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, but we already said that there actually were other hidden villages, so does that mean there are other Hokages? Yes and no, each village has different characteristics including their environment, their military forces, their leaders and their Feudal Lord. So, the 'Ho' placed as a prefix for 'kage' was something exclusive to the Leaf's leader and the other Kages had their own prefixes.

Each village was situated in a nation, they were five actually, and they all were in conflict. Of course, when they are five powerful villages competing to see which one is the best overall and considering the background they all share together; this certainly results in battles and eventually wars. Speaking of wars, the Ninja world has known three so far, each time colder and bloodier than the other.

You already guessed it; things such as fights, betrayals, and collaborations of weaker nations to take on a stronger one were businesses the nations were confronted to on a daily routine. That was why all the Kages had to get the latest updates on daily situations all around the Shinobi World, updates coming as paperwork, to make the best decisions such as calculating an enemy's moves to defend in case of an ambush, make temporary peace treaty with other countries in order to gain their trust or stop a war situation, and even send spies to find any weakness in other countries to exploit.

Such were the duties of any Kage, in addition to their internal problems that included watching over their own village and making sure that they were well advanced economically, militarily and intellectually. Any carelessness could be fatal. But we will get back to these kinds of details later.

For now, Hiruzen Sarutobi was looking the animated streets of Konoha through his office's window, right behind his desk where mountains of paperwork stood, most of them being filled during the night and waiting to be replaced with new ones this morning. The Hokage was watching the streets without actually watching them; he was waiting, his arms crossed behind his back and a pipe in his mouth.

What was he waiting for, by the way? Two things, actually: the first thing being the ANBU ninjas that were supposed to arrive soon to take the mountains of filled paperwork and drop the new ones, and the second thing being news about the intriguing Half-Saiyan that he personally brought to the hospital that night.

'_I am at the end of my life and yet I discover so much things that were unknown to me in only one night.'_ he thought releasing a smoke filled sigh _'The strangest thing is that the pureness in that boy's heart makes it impossible for me to consider him a potential threat or a danger for the village. However, Earth remains his original planet and our technology is way too far less advanced than theirs which makes it impossible to allow him to return there, added to the fact that the distance between our planets may be too huge.'_

The Third's thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door that he has been expecting for a moment.

"You may enter." he said, allowing whoever knocked to enter his office. As he heard the door open behind him, he turned to see who made it to his office first, and it turned out it was…

"I am back, Hokage-sama." Inoichi said, closing the door behind him without turning his back on the leader and slightly bowing all with respect.

"Um, then it means that he is awake, right?" the Hokage asked getting straight to the point.

"Yes, and he seems to be doing fine; the doctor even said that he would be able to leave his room in a few hours."

"This is good news. Did you tell him to come to my office as soon as he would be able to?"

"I did, Lord Hokage." Yamanaka remained silent for a moment, his eyes resting on an easily noticeable item lying on the Third's desk "I don't think we will be able to hide the fact that we did search in his past while he was unconscious."

"I wasn't planning on hiding it from him." he replied, following the Jônin's eyes to the artifact they both looked at "You successfully did all what I was expecting you to do. You may leave."

Inoichi bowed one last time before getting out of the room, leaving the Hokage alone with his thoughts once again.

'_Now I am expecting your visit, Son Gohan.'_

(Gohan's Hospital Room – Konoha)

Gohan only slept for an hour after his talk with Inoichi, but it was restful. When he woke up, he didn't feel the pain of the previous night anymore, and he was kind of exited to get out of this place, not only because he was all fired up to get back to his training (more carefully this time), but also because this new environment was intriguing him in a positive way: his mind was already hungry for new knowledge and encounters, even more than his stomach usually was for food.

'_All the good conditions are provided for me to get stronger here.'_ He thought_ 'If I find my way back to Earth, I might as well get enough strength to defeat the Androids.'_

Now that he thought about it, he did put a good fight against them the last time they encountered. Hell, he even had the upper hand at a moment of the battle, before they used their full power and joined forces against him, proving once again that he was still a long way from even reaching their level. And as if he didn't have enough handicaps like this, he completely lost his left arm during one of his fight, and even if he managed to get used to this, it was still a hard task to handle his enemies with only one active arm, especially when there was more than one enemy to fight.

But, there was something else getting on his way, something that bothered him for a while now. Actually, he noticed it right after finding himself on this planet, and this something was the reason why he was able to keep up with his enemies so far: he was unable to transform into a Super Saiyan.

As he told Trunks once, the way to achieve this great level was to find the emotion deep within one's heart and let the 'dam break'. Usually, this advice worked and he would transform without much difficulty, but ever since he woke up after his fight with 17 and 18, he couldn't anymore. No matter how hard he tried to remember how mercilessly Krillin and Piccolo were killed by those monsters, how he had to face Bulma after seeing the dead body of Vegeta with his own eyes, how powerless he was to save millions of people crushed by the demons regardless of their ages and gender daily. He couldn't find the necessary push that would let all the power hidden inside him spread through his body and envelope him in its warm light.

As he was cursing his terrible luck, the door of his room opened and a nurse entered. She told him that he would be able to leave the hospital right after passing a casual test. This casual test ensures that you are fully in shape to be once again free of moving without medical care constantly following you behind. And so, the nurse tested the Hybrid's reflexes, sight, heartbeats and after this he was all ready to go.

After she left so he could change to his normal outfit, he quickly went to the bedside table and opened the cupboard. Just as Inoichi told him, he found clothes inside that he took out. The clothes were his orange gi and his wristband, which were the only clothes he didn't ruin last night, a new pair of orange pants and a blue belt that were more or less similar to the old ones. He also found a pair of blue sandals, the same model everyone wore around here. The only piece of equipment missing was his cape, surely because it was way too heavy for anyone to lift it all the way to this room.

'_Well, I might have to wait a moment before I get other weighted clothes. But, my cape should do the job for now: I'll just have to give more strength to my clones.'_ he thought as he started putting on his outfit.

Once he knew he was ready to leave, he quickly rushed out of the hospital and found himself in the middle of the village's street. He stood still for a moment, letting the natural and fresh air hit him and looking at the crowded place: it was still a couple of hours before noon and all kinds of people were walking from everywhere going from the shopping housewives to the kids running around either alone or in small groups.

'_It sure is a peaceful village.'_ Gohan thought drawing a large smile across his face before getting back to a more serious expression _'But I shouldn't waste anymore time enjoying myself; Hokage-sama is waiting for me and it seems important.'_

He looked around him before spotting the Hokage Monument with, in front of it, the Hokage's Mansion: the biggest building in the whole village.

'_Good thing Naruto showed me around the village, yesterday.'_ he thought _'Right after I'm done with what I have to do, I'll go look for him.'_

Without anymore thinking, he started running in Konoha's streets, **doooodging** his way until his destination. We should mention that he enjoyed running all the way there for some reasons, maybe due to the charm the village had to offer in the morning: the peaceful atmosphere, the birds singing their different, and yet, harmonically well-synchronized songs, and the smells. The smells of the trees surrounding the village mixing with the one of the fruits and vegetables coming from the shops and the one of the hot metals being stroke coming from the weaponry: this whole mixture did give a feeling that the boy was enjoying a lot.

Once he arrived at the doors, he was stopped by a young man wearing the green vests and blue headband that he saw more than once since he came here. The man just got out of the mansion, holding a couple of huge books in one of his arms.

"Where do you think you're going like this?" he asked, wearing an amused/confused expression "Did you get lost or something?"

Gohan looked up; the man talking to him was a brunette who had a long horizontal scar on his nose. He had brown hair held in a ponytail in a chonmage style. He was curiously staring at the Saiyan, inspecting him with his brown eyes and lingering on his left eye and arm (for obvious reasons…)

"I'm not, sir. I actually have to talk with Lord Hokage." he answered right away.

"Lord Hokage?! Are you sure?"

"Y-Yes, sir." the man thought for a couple of seconds before answering.

"I've never seen you around, are you going to the Ninja Academy?" he asked.

"My name is Son Gohan, and tomorrow will be my first day there, if I recall it correctly."

"Anyways, I'll accompany you to the Hokage's office. But if I find out that you've been lying, then you'll be in trouble!" he warned "Now follow me."

With that, our hero found himself walking behind the young man who didn't seem to trust him on the matter that he had to talk with the Third, and it was normal: he was the village's leader and was supposed to be well-protected by elite Chûnnins and Jônins. It's not like some random and loud kid could infiltrate the place and steal a secret 'treasure', RIGHT?!

After going through the floors and corridors of the mansion, they arrived in front of the Hokage's door. The man cleared his throat and knocked on it.

"You may enter." said a voice coming from the inside. The brunette opened the door and entered, bowing in respect.

"Lord Hokage," he started "there is a boy who says that he needs to talk with you."

Inside of the room, Hiruzen Sarutobi was filling paperwork freshly brought to him by an ANBU Ninja some minutes ago, and upon hearing what the man said, he raised his head to look at his visitors.

"Oh, then it must be Gohan. Thank you for guiding him here, Iruka."

"Yes my Lord." Iruka then turned to face Gohan, with an embarrassing smile on his face and scratching the back of his head "I'm sorry, but I had to make sure you were saying the truth."

"I don't blame you; you were doing your job." the warrior forgave.

"I think I should go." He said, getting ready to leave.

"Iruka." the Third called, getting the attention of the man.

"Yes, Lord Hokage?"

"I will need to speak with you about some minor matters later, is that fine?"

"Yes, Lord Third." He bowed one last time in front of his leader before getting out of the room and closing the door, leaving Gohan and the Hokage alone.

"So you have already encountered your teacher." the Third said.

"My teacher? Do you mean Iruka-san?"

"Yes, Iruka Umino is the Ninja Academy's teacher and he will be teaching you all what you need to know about the Shinobi world and how to be an exemplar ninja." he explained, right before getting to the part of the subject that interested them both "So, I deduce by your presence here that you are feeling better."

"Yes, Hokage-sama. Also, thank you; I don't know what would have happened if you didn't find me." he thanked the Leaf leader before asking him a question that has been on his mind for the last hour "But how did you know where I was?"

"As the Hokage, it is my duty to keep an eye on the villagers and the village; see who enters and who leaves. But still, I also realized that you didn't tell me everything about your past yesterday." Sarutobi said in an almost blaming tone a parent would use on their child who kept a truth hidden from them. Gohan only lowered his head, feeling embarrassed and kind of ashamed.

"I'm sorry Lord Hokage, I guess I will have to tell you my whole story from the beginning this time." he thought about starting his story from the day his 'uncle' kidnapped him.

"There actually is no need for that." the wise man said, saving him the trouble "You met Inoichi Yamanaka, right?"

"Yes I did, sir."

"You must know that the people from the Yamanaka clan are skilled with psychic Jutsus, going from simple Mind Control ones to complex Mind Reading ones." Gohan now had his eyes wide open, having an idea of what the Third was getting at "I asked him to search through your past while you were unconscious; I know this is a rude thing to do, but this single way was better than thousands of words and misunderstandings."

Having your mind being read by people you barely knew normally was something you would never tolerate because, admit it, you may or may not be guilty about some things in your past: minor ones or more important ones that you wouldn't want to speak about. But Gohan didn't commit anything in his past that could be considered a crime or that he was ashamed of, except maybe his cowardice which was understandable at some point since he only was four years old back then.

On the other hand, he also owed him that much of knowledge since he was the one who agreed on joining this village and hiding things from its leader would be almost a sin.

"Well, then you know everything that happened during my life, huh?"

"Yes, the Saiyans, how their planet actually was destroyed and who destroyed it, the Super Saiyan and even the Dragon Balls."

"Speaking of the Saiyans, can I ask you a question Lord Hokage?"

"You may ask it."

"How did you know about the Saiyans' existence in the first place?" he asked, doubting that this planet was technologically advanced enough to travel into space. At this question, the Leaf leader took a deep breath of smoke from his pipe before releasing it in an equally deep sigh.

"To be honest with you," he started, looking at the Half-Saiyan "you are the very first person with Saiyan blood that I see with my own eyes."

Gohan remained silent, waiting for Sarutobi to proceed with whatever story the Saiyans had with this planet.

"I may be the only person still alive who knows about the history of the Saiyans here, in this region, back in the days when it still wasn't known as Konoha. Two powerful clans, the Senjus, the clan of my masters, and the Uchihas, were constantly fighting each other to know which clan was the strongest in the Nation. But then, one day, some meteorites violently crashed on the ground. From what my masters told me and from what I saw in your memorize those meteorites actually were called 'space pods', and from them emerged human-like creatures. They were wearing some strange armor, less developed than the ones you came to know, and all had monkey tails wrapped around their hips. They were the Saiyans that came on our planet to conquer it! Compared to the recent ones, those Saiyans were weak. But they still were mighty foes in front of us, to the point they pushed the Senjus, the Uchihas along with some other clans of the Land of Fire to form an alliance and fight the common threat. Of course, the Saiyans not being as powerful as they grew to be and the old days Ninjas being stronger than they are nowadays, the enemy was quickly chased from our planet, running away and taking with them the spaceships of their fallen comrades, surely to prevent us from taking advantage of their technology."

"But why didn't they come back?" asked Gohan who knew that the pure-blooded Saiyans were bloodthirsty and would never miss an opportunity to fight stronger foes.

"This question remained unanswered until last night: we always thought that their planet was destroyed since we never saw or heard of them again, but this night I had that information confirmed through your knowledge." he marked a pause "My masters also told me that before leaving, our enemies revealed something about how they would have crushed us if the moon was full. I never understood what this meant until I saw the answer to my question yet again from you… we were lucky, indeed, that it wasn't and that they didn't knew about artificial moons at that time…"

Our hero could easily picture the fate of this planet if such a thing happened. But what actually is the whole link between a Saiyan and the full moon? The Saiyans are a race of warriors that look a lot like humans, both physically and intellectually, but they had something more: tails. A Saiyan that posses his tail will, if his eyes enter in contact with the full moon, transform. Transform into what? They transform into giant, horrible and murderous Apes. Once a Saiyan transform into a Great Ape, they totally lose the control of their mind and actions and literally become brainless beasts that only have one goal: destroy **everything** standing on their path and beyond. There is, however, an exception concerning some elite first class warriors that still keep their mind in a perfect state after the transformation.

From what Vegeta once mentioned, transforming into a Great Ape multiplies a Saiyan's base strength by, at least, ten times, which helps them conquer planets populated by stronger opponents.

"Gohan," said the Third, stopping the boy's thoughts. He turned his back on him and walked to his desk "our past with the Saiyans isn't the only thing I wanted to talk about with you."

He sat in front of the paper-filled desk and opened a drawer. Searching through it, he took something inside and handed it to the Hybrid.

"Take a closer look at this." he told the villager.

The Hybrid got closer to the desk and stared at the object that was handed to him: it was a ball, a crystal ball as far as he could tell. It was orange, small, slightly transparent and shining brilliantly with the sunrays caressing it. Upon looking better inside the ball, he spotted red stars, four of them precisely. That item wasn't unknown to the kid, since he saw it more than once in his life, but never saw it again for the past thirteen years.

"This is… a Dragon Ball?!" he shouted stupefied by what he actually had before him. The Four Star Dragon Ball was right in front of him, in perfect shape. Not a mere stone, not a fake, an actual Dragon Ball on the Hokage's hand "B-B-But, how…?"

"One year ago, a patrolling ANBU of mine found it in a nearby forest. He said that it upon inspections; he did feel some kind of magic coming from it, so he took it with him and brought it back here. I kept it all this time, not knowing if it was a piece of art or a treasure, but now I know what it is." he explained.

Gohan's surprised expression was soon replaced with a serious one. He raised his eyes from the crystal ball to Sarutobi.

"Lord Hokage," he firmly said "I need to leave the village and investigate things regarding the Dragon Balls."

"…! What are you talking about?!" he wasn't expecting the boy to ask him to leave on that kind of mission on his own free will.

"Through my mind, you should have learned that those balls don't randomly exist: someone created them, and he must be on this planet, alive, or else they would only be mere stones barren of any power." Silence reigned inside of the room. Gohan was still looking at the Hokage, expecting an answer from him. The latter, however, had his eyes closed, lost in his thoughts. After five (not Namekian) minutes, he reopened them and look at the Saiyan with a sever expression.

"I can't allow this." he strictly opposed to his idea.

"Why?"

"Because you officially are a Konoha villager studying in the Ninja Academy, I cannot send you on an official mission while you still aren't even a Genin." he argued.

"A Genin…? Excuse me for asking, but what does Genin mean, Lord Hokage?" a confused Gohan asked.

"It looks like you still don't know much about Konoha's hierarchical order yet." he took a deep breath (again) before answering back "You, eventually, will get to learn it in the Academy. At least, I will tell you that a Genin is the first rank you are promoted to upon successfully graduating from the Ninja Academy."

"When do I get to graduate?"

"Normally, you should be able to pass you final exam in five years." this revelation hit the Hybrid like the lightning.

"Five years?!" he repeated, shocked and with an almost comical expression "I don't know if I will be able to wait that long…"

"All I can tell you is that I will watch over your progresses through the Academy, and if I judge your skills and, especially, knowledge of the Shinobi World high enough, you may be promoted a Genin earlier than expected." silence was reigning yet again in the place, before Gohan raised a clenched and determinate fist in front of his chest and showed a confident smile.

"Then I'll give it my all and become a Genin as soon as possible!" that resolution made surprise appear in the Leaf's leader's face, but it soon changed into a satisfied smile.

"With that spirit, I can't doubt that you will."

"Was this all you wanted to discuss with me, Hokage-sama?"

"Yes, Gohan. You may leave." after being dismissed for the moment, the boy put his open hand in front of his face and bowed, respectfully saying goodbye to his Leader and leaving the room.

The Hokage, finally alone, relaxed on his chair, still smoking his pipe. He silently laughed alone, thinking about Gohan's future as a Konoha ninja.

'_At this rate, Genin isn't the only rank that boy will reach in no time.'_ he thought at the probability of the seven years old becoming the youngest Jônin in history.

(Later, in the Afternoon – Konoha Streets)

Right after his talk with the Hokage, Gohan went to his apartment, grabbed his cape and his money, and left to have his meal at Ichiraku's, knocking on Naruto's door while he was at it since he wanted some company. But no answer came from it, hinting that he already left to whatever place he was in.

After eating, he spent the early afternoon searching his whiskered friend around the village, but the foxy boy was nowhere to be found.

As he walked randomly everywhere, he could notice the attention the passers-by directed at him: some were looking at him puzzled, not knowing who he was and maybe because they saw him when he entered the village with the Hokage, and some were throwing daggers at him, surely because they already saw him a day earlier hanging out with Naruto, the not-so-appreciated kid.

"Hah. Hah. Hah." he heard a noise coming from behind him, a noise comparable to a constant breath, but didn't pay too much attention to it as he was proceeding with the search of Naruto.

'_Man, the Ramen sure are good: now I get why Naruto likes them so much. It's a shame we couldn't eat together.'_ he thought, satisfied with the lunch he had. Today, he only finished ten large bowls of Ramen, a Saiyan is supposed to eat way more than that.

"Rrruf!" the same sound, only now it was more like a small bark, it actually caught Gohan's attention as he turned to look back, and slowly lowered his gaze. There, at his feet, was sitting on the ground a white small hairball with two falling ears and a red tongue wet with slaver that was cooling all the way to the bottom of the tongue and dropping to the ground.

Gohan kneeled on one leg and looked at the little thing with wide-open eyes and his mouth in a confused frown.

"What are you, a puppy?" he asked the white ball that responded with a small bark, letting him guess that it was indeed a dog.

Our young Saiyan friend couldn't help but smile at the animal. He extended his hand above the puppy, but it slightly cringed back with fear, closing its mouth.

"C'mon, I won't hurt you, we're going to be friends!" he said, extending his hand further before putting it on the dog's head, caressing its light fur. Soon, the cub showed signs of enjoyment: it opened its mouth again, letting tongue hang with the saliva. Its tail was also waving, showing further signs of pleasure; it wasn't afraid of Gohan anymore.

"There, good boy." The boy told his new 'friend'.

"Akamaru!" called a young boy's voice from across the street, causing the villagers to look at him out of curiosity before turning their gaze away quickly. The boy had messy hair, almost shaped like naruto's only his were brown. He was wearing a light brown sweatshirt and gray shorts, he also wore blue sandals, just like everyone in this place (either their feet have incredible resistance in case of cold weather, or maybe 'the one responsible for this' just loves to draw toes… what? He actually does? Oh well…)

He was running in the direction of the duo and, upon closer view, he had some really incredible features: first, he had some red war-like paints on each cheek. Then, there were his eyes; they were black and sharp which, combined with his marks and spiky hair, gave him that bestial look that would make you wonder if he's totally human.

He finally stopped in front of the puppy and Gohan, the latter got up and was now looking at the other kid who seemed to be around his age.

"There you are! Why did you run away? That's really bad!" he scolded the animal, pointing his finger at it. The dog, now known as Akamaru, responded to the person who seemed to be his master with a sad whimper.

"Is it your puppy?" Gohan asked, getting in the conversation. The boy stared at him with a questioning face before asking.

"Who are you? I've never seen you around."

"My name's Son Gohan, and…" as he was introducing himself, the newcomer got closer to him and began inspecting him from head to toe, front and even back, he was also starting to smell him, just like an animal "I'm new in this village."

The kid finally moved away from the Saiyan and nodded to himself.

"Umm… I've definitely never seen you around." it seemed like he didn't completely focus on what he was told "Wait, you say you're new to the village?"

"Yeah, who are you?"

"Son Gohan, huh? I am Kiba Inuzuka, and this is Akamaru" he pointed at his puppy, the latter happily barked, confirming its presence.

"So, Gohan, when did you arrive in Konoha?" Kiba asked.

"Yesterday, in the afternoon."

"So that's why I've never encountered you in the village or the Academy!" when he realized that he said the 'A' word, Kiba's cheerful expression changed into a depressive one "Please, don't tell me the weekend's over already…"

"Err… I pretty much guess it is since tomorrow's school." Gohan answered, confused about the boy's behavior: he noticed that both he and Naruto weren't very glad to attend class, something that he didn't understand. He always dreamt of going to a _**real**_ classroom and having classmates and teachers that wouldn't hit him with a whip, being the nerdy child he was, back in the days.

"No good, I have to enjoy every single minutes before tomorrow! You should do the same, Gohan." he told the warrior "Akamaru, TO THE PLAYING GROUND!"

With this departure signal, he started running to where he came from with his dog following him behind, this time. At first, Gohan just stood where he was, looking at them leave. But then, he thought about what to do, and…

'_I don't think I have anything better planned, so maybe I could join them?'_ he then started running behind the beast duo before they disappeared in another street.

"Wait for me!" he called, catching up to them.

(Late Afternoon – Konoha Playing Ground)

The playing ground was, obviously enough, the children's favorite place to hang out and play: sandbox, slide, swings, monkey bars… there was no way they could get bored. During weekdays, the kids would rush here right after getting out of the Academy. While on holydays, like today, they would spend the whole day playing there, excluding meal times, of course, unless they brought a bento with them. At dusk, their parents would come to take them back, and that was usually an hour from now.

As Gohan, Kiba and Akamaru arrived in the space, it was still crowded with the kids happily playing everywhere around it: boys and girls were all enjoying their favorite games in multiple groups, releasing multiple noises, but giving the same ideas: life, youth, and happiness.

They walked inside of the playing ground before the beast boy noticed someone that he seemed to know and ran toward him, leaving the Saiyan a little behind. The boy he saw was lying on top of a wooden table, in a corner of the ground, apparently sleeping. He had black hair tied in a chonmage ponytail, almost like Iruka, but a little more drawn up. He was wearing a dark gray T-shirt with a yellow circle on the middle and a strange red design on it, symbolizing something for sure.

"Hey, Shikamaru!" called Kiba while getting in front of the sleeping corps. He got no answer aside from him turning his back on him.

"Grr… heeey! Can you hear me, Shikamaru?!" he shouted at the sleepyhead who only responded with an annoyed growl.

"What do you want, Kiba?" Shikamaru asked, slightly turning his head towards his friend.

"Try to guess what's up?"

"Just spit it out." The ponytail boy demanded out of impatience.

"There's going to be a new figure in the classroom starting tomorrow, look." he said, getting out of the way to let Shikamaru have a look at Gohan.

The lazy boy made, what seemed to him, a superhuman effort to get on a sitting position, mumbling something under his breath that sounded like "What a drag…" and took a better look at the Saiyan with the weird cape.

"Hello." the Hybrid greeted with a large smile on his face.

"Hi…" responded Shikamaru, barely facing the new kid, then he turned to where Kiba was "You're happy? Good, now go do something less troublesome, like sleeping."

With that, he lay back on the table and resumed his nap without further words exchanged.

"Don't mind it too much: that's Shikamaru Nara to you." the Inuzuka boy said, sparing his lazy friend the 'troublesome' introductions "He sleeps a lot and is always easily tired. Oh, and I should mention that he thinks everything's 'troublesome', but today he seems even more tired than usual, right Akamaru?"

"Ruf!" answered the dog that climbed on his head a while ago.

"Okay…" Gohan answered simply, wondering how someone could get tired of getting tired and thus sleeping all day and night. They judged that bothering their Nara friend any longer wouldn't be the best idea to spend a good time before going back home, so they left him to his sleeping and went around the playing ground, searching for a distraction.

_~Later~_

While walking, Gohan noticed that the other children would, from time to time, stop playing and stare at him with confused faces, before quickly lowering their heads, almost with fear. That detail troubled him a little, but he more or less knew why they had such reactions: he remembered that he was wearing that cape that was a pretty uncommon model in here, and he also had that scar on his face that would easily creep out a normal kid, not that he wasn't normal himself: he was just you average happy boy who didn't live his childhood to its fullest because of the battles he had all though his life, and that he will continue to have until he know he can rest forever.

"You're quite the center of attention here, aren't you?" Kiba noticed.

"I guess so…"

"By the way, I meant to ask this earlier, but why do you have a scar on your face? Did you have an incident with a kunai during an outdoor class?" this question almost made the gashed boy cringe back. At first he didn't know what to answer, but as Kiba kept on speaking and mentioned the outdoor lessons, an answer came to his head and he quickly responded as he could.

"Err… yeah, that's it: it was during a lesson! My kunai slipped from my hand and it cut my face. Hahah, I'm lucky it didn't cut my eye, though." despite his efforts, his answer seemed forced, and his laugh in the middle was even weirder, it even caused his friend to raise an eyebrow in confusion.

"Really…? Whatever, what do you think we could do? We barely played on the swings and in the sandbox. Now that I think about it, it _**is**_ kinda late since the sun's setting, and is it only me or is the place emptier…?" he raised his head, trying to keep up with the sun's progression before facing reality with wide open eyes and mouth: the big star was almost disappearing in the horizon, indicating 'that' time of the day where children would be picked up by their parents to return home and eventually have dinner… just to sleep early and get prepared for another week in the Academy.

"Kiba!" called a woman's voice, coming from the ground's entrance. The two boys were now facing a woman wearing the Konoha green vest (again). She had average spiky brown hair (again) with two fringes in front (originality!), and for the rest, she had the same features as Kiba: sharp black eyes and red war-paints on the cheeks. Her identity was, obviously, not that much of a mystery for the Saiyan.

"Is this woman your mother?" he asked.

"Yeah… and I guess I'm in trouble." he said with a grimace, looking at his mother's half angry, half impatient expression.

"Why? Did you do something bad?"

"Well… I-I'll explain it tomorrow, if I'm still alive that is…"

"Kiba, it's time to go home, young man." the woman scolded, getting closer to her son and pulling his ear. As for Akamaru, his natural instincts immediately led him to hide inside of his master's sweatshirt, trembling and whimpering with fear.

"Ouch! Stop it, mom! I'm coming." the boy defended himself. At the same moment, the Inuzuka woman noticed the presence of Gohan who was watching his new friend being scolded with a confused face, not knowing what to do in such situation.

"I've never seen you here, are you the boy Iruka told me about; the new villager?" she asked the Hybrid.

"Y-Yes, ma'am." the Saiyan answered with his usual respectful manners.

"You seem to be a respectful one." She said, turning to Kiba "Let that be an example to you!"

"What do you mean mom? I'm respectful too!" he said as he was dragged away by the ear by his mother, leaving Gohan behind.

"This isn't what your sensei told me! Did you enjoy skipping Friday classes? Getting out by the window, on top of that!" this sentence of the mother was the last thing the gashed could hear before they disappeared in a corner of the street.

…

…

Silence was the only thing left with the confused boy who was still standing in the same spot where he 'parted' ways with his new friend, looking at the same corner.

'… _He sure will get a thrashing.'_ The warrior thought._ 'As for me, there's nobody to do this to me anymore…'_

He looked up in the sky with melancholy in his eyes. It was a matter of minutes before night fell on the village of Konoha, now, and he was witnessing the sun's last moments in the horizon.

'_I should get going.'_ and so, Gohan walked back to his apartment, silently.

(Evening – Apartments)

Gohan climbed the stairs of the building, leading to the door of his house and Naruto's. He didn't see the latter all day and was wondering on what he was doing.

He decided to first go toward the door and, after thinking whether he would disturb him or not, knocked on it.

…

No answer.

"Hey, Naruto, are you here?" the new kid asked.

"No! Nobody's here, dattebayo!" replied a voice inside, indicating that somebody actually was in there.

"Naruto, it's me, Gohan." he tried to call, still not sure if the blond would be willing to come out of his nest to talk. Not that he knew why he was hiding inside and pretending not to be there in the first place.

A few seconds later, the door opened and a whiskered face with blonde hair popped out, examining the person in front of his door with wary eyes.

"Gohan? It's really you?"

"Yeah, it's me." that answer was like the 1% adding itself to the 99% Naruto had of expectation that it truly was his friend standing in front of him. His wary expression soon transformed into a happy one as he completely opened his door, revealing a rather dark inside and forcing Gohan to quickly take a step back to avoid getting hit.

"Great! I've been looking for you everywhere all day, dattebayo! Where were you?" asked the hyperactive Uzumaki.

"Well, I've been searching for you as well, and I even knocked on your door this noon but you weren't here."

"Actually…" he stopped to look around them, and especially in the stairs direction before pulling his Saiyan friend by his shirt inside of his apartment.

"Ouaaaaa!" was the only thing Gohan could say as he was being grabbed inside the dark room. Once they were both inside, Naruto quickly closed the door and he was heard locking it, leaving them both in absolute darkness and highly disturbing the Hybrid.

"What's up with you?" asked the confused black-haired boy.

"Shhhhhh." The prankster silenced his friend. "He mustn't hear us."

"Who? And why are you speaking in a low voice."

"I was walking in the streets of the village, looking for you, but then I encountered him! I tried to run away, but he noticed my presence and chased after me, dattebayo!"

"Who?"

"After my prank of yesterday, there's no way he's going to let the Friday thing slide." The foxy boy now seemed to be more muttering to himself than to the gashed.

"Naruto, tell me who you are talking about!"

"I… I-I…" he seemed to have trouble saying the name of the executioner.

"I?"

"I-Iruka-sensei!" at this revelation, Gohan stood still, unable to do or say anything: his brain was too busy analyzing the situation. But then, he understood everything and fell back on the ground with his legs up in a comic way.

He soon got back on his feet and rubbed his head.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah, I sure am in for some big troubles tomorrow, dattebayo…"

'_So this 'Friday' thing isn't something Kiba did alone, huh?'_ he thought, finding a connection between the two.

"Why did you skip classes in the first place?" at this question, Naruto's eyes widened, as if he just had his mind read which isn't true, but is quite close enough.

"How did you know?!" he asked.

"Kiba. He told me more or less directly about it."

"That stupid bastard…" he cursed, surprising Gohan who wasn't used to listen to swearing, especially coming from a kid his age.

"Err… Anyways, don't you think Iruka-sensei has other things to do than wait in front of your door? There's no need to become paranoid."

"Para—what? Whatever, you don't know him: he won't give up so easily! I tell you that he is just waiting for me to open this door and then, it'll turn into the biggest lecture I ever had in my life, dattebayo."

"*sigh* is it really necessary to lock the door and close your windows? I can barely see my feet in here." the Saiyan said while thinking of a way to make Naruto less worried about their sensei spying on him and get back to his room to get some sleep, but how?

Should he knock out the prankster? No way: that would be an awful thing to do, even in an extreme case. Should he lie about seeing Iruka somewhere else? There was no need for this since he just remembered something that he heard earlier today and that would do the thing.

"Iruka-sensei can't be here, right now: I encountered him this afternoon and he told me that he had something to do in Lord Hokage's office." he half-lied, since their teacher did have to discuss 'minor matters' with the village leader.

"Is that true?" a half-relieve Naruto asked, wanting to make sure that this information was true.

"Uh-huh, so you don't have to worry at all!" before he knew it, the room's light was turned back on, allowing Gohan to have a better look at his surroundings. Naruto's apartment was pretty similar to his; the entrance, as far as he could tell: same wooden ground, same length and width, and same supplies and furniture. There, however, was a difference between the two apartments.

"It's pretty messy around here…" remarked the blonde's guest as he looked at the clothes, empty boxes of instant Ramen and dirty bowls lying everywhere in the room.

"To celebrate this," said Naruto who was totally ignoring the words of the Saiyan. He ran to the windows and opened them to allow some fresh air to fill the place. He quickly went to the fridge and opened it, searching inside "Ramen!"

With that, he took out of the fridge two boxes of instant Ramen.

_~A little more than five minutes later~_

After the five minutes required for the noodles to boil in the hot water, the two seven years old sat at the table, enjoying their meal.

"So, Naruto," Gohan started "is Iruka-sensei as terrible as you and Kiba say he is?"

"Umm, not that he's terrible, but his lectures are boring: he has to yell for anything we do, dattebayo! It would be better if he could give us a break."

"Maybe he's doing it because he cares for you."

"Nah, I mean, he doesn't even have a girlfriend, at his age." Naruto stated, getting completely out of the subject.

(Meanwhile – On the roof of the Hokage Residence)

"Achooo! *sniff*" a certain Academy teacher, who was facing the Heroes' Monument, just sneezed all of a sudden. This, of course, caught the attention of the person standing in front him who revealed to be none other than the village Third Hokage. The latter had his back turned on the teacher, but slightly looked above his shoulder, toward him.

"Is the early evening's wind disturbing you, Iruka?" he asked with a small smile on his face "Or, could it be that you caught someone's attention today?"

These teasing words had the desired effects on the shy instructor, since upon understanding the meaning of the Leaf's leader's words started blushing and sweating because of the embarrassment.

"Huh? Err, I-I mean, please Hokage-sama; this is an embarrassing subject that I would rather avoid." he objected as respectfully as possible.

"*chuckle* it's alright, Iruka." the Hokage said before leaving the jokes aside to move to a more serious topic "As you are already aware of it, you will welcome a new student in your classroom starting tomorrow."

"Yes. His name is Son Gohan, right?" the Leader simply nodded as an answer to this question.

"I just wanted keep you informed that he is 'special'."

"Special?"

"His level may exceed the one of his comrades far beyond all expectations, but he barely knows anything about the Shinobi World, that's why I'll ask you to be careful with him."

Iruka was puzzled, to say the least: the level of the boy exceeding any of the other students was already a thing by itself, but him not knowing anything about the Ninja World… he did notice that Gohan seemed strange, but now he was even more curious to know what was up with the kid. On the other hand, teaching the new generation about the world and its surroundings was his duty, after all: a duty he fully took responsibility for, and he would do everything to serve this purpose.

"I understand, Lord Hokage."

"Good." there was a moment of silence during which neither of them did or said anything, just contemplating the monument standing before them, on the mountain dominating Konoha.

The Hokage's Residence's roof sure was the best place in the whole village to have the best sight on the sculptures of the village's heroes. Sometimes, and with the agreement of the Hokage who encouraged such activities, Iruka would take his class on this same roof for lessons; lessons that usually were about Konoha's history and the Hokage's role in taking care of the village and the villagers.

Rarely, and if the time allowed him to, Sarutobi himself would pay them a visit up there and would say a few words to the students, reminding them of their original values and how they should always protect them and fight for their sake, and how one day, they would be the ones transmitting the same knowledge to their children: such was the 'Will of Fire'.

"By the way," the Third broke the silence "how is Naruto doing, lately? Is he still causing you troubles?"

"*sigh* yes, Naruto is still the same, from that point of view: still ignoring the importance of the Academy in making a good Ninja out of him, and yesterday, he even painted absurd things on the monument." he made a short pause "I know he's living a hard life, but I still hope I'll be able to change his mind."

"Don't worry." Hiruzen said; his eyes closed and smoke rising from his pipe "There is more to him than just a troublemaker or a prankster, after all…"

'_You know that too,'_ he thought, opening them back and focusing his glance on the fourth sculptured face _'right, Fourth Hokage?'_

As an answer to his thought, the wind gently started blowing again all over the place, transporting leaves gracefully dancing in the air, and flying away as far as it could take them.

* * *

_**And so, this looooooong (just like my… planet? I start to sound like Sai…) chapter ends right here, right now. I sincerely hope you liked it despite its length.**_

_**Speaking of length, starting from here on, we can say that the 'big prologue' is over and the chapters, unless they hold important events, will have more 'reasonable' lengths (between 2,5K and 5K words) which will be better for both you and I: tell me what you think of it.**_

_**As for the poll, I remember telling you that it would be closed around the time I posted this chapter, but it seems we are experiencing the same thing as Android 17 and 18: a tie! But hopefully, this tie won't last long and once a team will dominate the others by a couple of votes, I'll close the poll and you'll be able to see the results.**_

_**As usual, have fun reading this chapter, ask the questions if you have any, and have a nice—**_

_**KeyToQuestions: Wait, KeyToUnivers!**_

_**KeyToUnivers: What is it KeyToQuestions?**_

_**KTQ: Why did you censor the part where Gohan had his mind being read? It could've been super cool and—**_

_**KTU: Wow, calm down. First, know that I originally planned to start this chapter from where I left in the previous one and include the whole mind reading. But after thinking, it would have made it uselessly longer than it already is and there isn't much to discuss about. Second, we already know Gohan's story before the fanfic more than enough and writing a mind reading part would've been comparable to a huge and annoying flashback and the readers would've got bored by such a thing: we want to see some new content, here! Do you get it now?!**_

_**KTQ: Y-Yeah…**_

_**KTU: Good! So, as I was saying, you guys enjoy the chapter and have a nice day!**_


	5. The Ninja Academy

_**V\ The Ninja Academy**_

(Early Morning – Gohan's Room)

With the first sun rays passing through his room's window, Gohan woke up pretty early, 6 A.M actually. Thankfully for him, he spent a dreamless, yet restful, night unlike the previous one.

But still, 6 A.M was too early, even for a kid who's going to school: he could've just rested a little more and enjoy his breakfast slowly, but that wasn't the case. Why is this? Is it because of the excitement for his first day at school? Of course, but there was something else on his mind; something that wouldn't be bothering him if he thought about asking Naruto, Kiba or even the Hokage, the previous day: he didn't know when school actually started!

And there he was, sitting at his table, all clean and ready to go, remembering as far as he could if he ever heard someone mention something about school hours. He did remember Naruto saying that it lasted six hours, but he didn't know when those six hours started. And so, he remained on his chair unsure of what to do.

'_Maybe I could just go and knock on Naruto's door?'_ he thought _'… Even though, I don't want to disturb him in case he's still asleep or something. But he needs to go to school too. What to do?'_

(Morning – Konoha Street)

As you know, the streets of Konoha are already active; even this early in the morning because today is Monday: the beginning of a new week for the villagers, or should I say the whole world.

But who will catch our attention this time, you may ask? Our focus right now is a little girl, around Naruto and the others' age. She had a pale skin and just as pale short blonde hair with two locks in front of her forehead; the left one being held back with a green hair clip matching the green/blue color of her eyes. She wore an orange sweatshirt with brown designs drawn on the shoulder and going all the way down her arms, and a pair of red pants and brown sandals.

She was walking in the crowded street of Konoha, passing in front of some other kids heading to the Academy because that was it: she was going the opposite way of her school! But it seemed like she was doing this on purpose; she was walking to a precise destination judging from her slightly hasty moves.

'_Quickly, quickly: I'm not picking up only one person, today.'_ she thought as she arrived in front of a house in the middle of the alley. There, she stepped in front of the door and knocked on it, waiting not-so-patiently for it to open, nervously hitting the ground with her foot.

Soon enough, the door opened to reveal an adult woman behind it. It was a blonde woman with short wheat-blonde hair and a bang falling in front of her face, and her eyes were green. She was wearing a cheongsam: a Chinese one-piece dress, which had three red circles on the bottom of it, both on the front and the back. Underneath it, she wore a pair of pink pants and brown sandals.

She looked at the girl in front of her door and smiled at her.

"Oh, good morning, Ino." she greeted.

"Good morning madam. Is Sakura ready?"

"Yes, can you wait a moment?" she turned her face away from Ino to look inside the house and called "Sakura! Ino is here, it's time to go!"

"I'm coming!" answered a voice from the inside.

After a moment, a little girl emerged from behind the door and got in front of the other blonde girl as fast as a flash. They were around the same age, but the new girl had pink hair tied in a red ribbon, she also had two bangs of hair falling in front of her rather large forehead, almost hiding her green eyes that were pretty similar to those of her mother. She was wearing a blue dress reaching her hips and a pair of light green pants and brown you-know-those-kind-of-shoes-already.

"Good morning, Ino." she said, happy to see her friend.

"Yeah, good morning Sakura." they were both interrupted by Sakura's mother who told them with a smile.

"I'll leave her to you, Ino." she then turned her attention to her daughter "As for you, remember to listen to your teacher."

"Yes mom, I'll be careful."

After the woman waved them goodbye, the door closed and the two girls were now alone.

"So, are we going?" Sakura asked, getting an unexpected expression of exasperation from the blonde.

"I don't think so…" she said, looking at a side of the street "You're not the only one I'll take to school, today."

"Huh? W-Who else?" the pink haired girl asked, both confused and slightly afraid.

"I don't really know, actually. Anyway, the faster we get him, the earlier we'll arrive, let's go." and with that said, Ino started to walk toward her next destination with Sakura following her closely behind.

(A Couple of Minutes Later – The Apartments)

The duo of girls arrived in front of some apartments. Ino was about to enter the building, but Sakura shyly caught her arm, stopping her from going any further.

"Ino, my parents told me never to get close to that place. 'He' lives here." she told her with her wary face.

"Don't worry: we aren't here for 'him', and it's my father who asked me to guide someone here to school; a new classmate."

"A-Are you sure?"

"Yeah, let's go." this time, the most confident of them entered with her friend, without being interrupted.

They climbed the slightly dark stairwell until they arrived on a small floor with two doors: one a little further on the left and the other just on their right: it was the one Ino was looking at.

"He said 'The one on the right', huh?" she mumbled. She took a deep breath and then "*sigh* let's see who that new kid is…"

She knocked on the door, stepping a little back in case the door opens too fast. Sakura, on the other hand, couldn't stop looking everywhere around her, visibly worried, as if some kind of monster could come out of the darkness of the place and attack her before her brain even have time to react.

Finally, the door opened, slowly, before the girls' eyes. They were both waiting to see what face would show up behind it with a mixture of fear and curiosity, and when the door completely opened, and the person was right in front of them…

"Who are you?" asked a boy's voice.

The boy in question was nobody else than our friendly hero: the gashed Son Gohan.

The two guests had different reactions upon first encountering with the Hybrid. Sakura, as you might have guessed it, found the boy with the scar and the weird cape even scarier than the monsters she was just picturing in her own mind, at the moment. So much that she quickly disappeared down the dark stairs, faster than she climbed them, releasing a girly scream.

"Eeeeeeeeeek!"

But, there also was the blonde's reaction to the appearance of the Half-Saiyan which looked more like…

***KABOOM***

She felt a thunderbolt booming, hitting her on the head and sending lightning shocks all through her body as she was shaking like a leaf, unable to move a finger.

She was picturing any kind of person coming in front of her: calm, hyperactive, good-looking, or ugly… anyone! But the gashed kid in front of her was nothing like she ever saw in her seven years of life: he was scary with his battle mark, that was a fact, and his cape gave him an extravagant look; almost like the one of a demon. However, he had something else going on; something she could hardly pinpoint.

"Hm? Hey, are you alright." Gohan asked the girl who was standing dumbstruck in front of his door with her widely open eyes and mouth.

"Uuuuh… I-It's… Errr, uuuh…" she could barely say a word, as if her voice couldn't obey her anymore, even her brain seemed to stop thinking properly.

'_Alright, what am I supposed to do know.'_ the Saiyan wondered, finding the silence around him embarrassing and uncomfortable.

"Do you need any help with anything?" he asked again, trying to get her back to reality.

Finally, Ino snapped out of her state of shock and partially recovered some control over her body.

"Oh, um… I'm Ino Yamanaka, and my father asked me to show you the way to school."

"Are you Inoichi Yamanaka's daughter?" Gohan asked, getting to the point "Great! So it's the time to go to school, now, right?"

"Err, y-yeah. I-I think we should get going…" as she was struggling to find the right words to say, the boy moved right past her and ran to the door in front of his.

"I should see if Naruto is ready!" he knocked on the door and waited for an answer, but the door began opening on the first knock.

Gohan hesitated for a couple of seconds, surprised to see his friend's door open alone, without anyone behind it.

"Naruto?" he called, peeping inside. Aside from the previous night's mess, the apartment was totally empty.

'_Maybe he already left…'_ he thought, even though Naruto didn't seem like the kind to get to class as early as possible _'I wonder why he left his door open; it's dangerous.'_

"Hey!" he heard the voice of the girl that he left in the corridor, behind him, trying to get his attention back "As I was saying: it's time to go to the Academy. Are you coming…? Eh…"

Gohan just stood in front of Ino, a puzzled look on his face: why was she hesitating to say his name? He asked himself the question before realizing something; he forgot to introduce himself to her.

"My name's Son Gohan! Sorry for not saying it earlier." he said, giving her the innocent grin known in his family while rubbing the back of his head.

'_That's exactly how that idiot of Naruto would act…'_ The blonde thought with a frown, then she left a small smile draw on her face_ 'But it has some charm when he's the one doing it.'_

"So, are we going?" the gashed asked.

"Yes, follow me!" and that's when they went downstairs, after Gohan closed Naruto's door and locked his, of course.

(A Few Minutes before School – Outside)

As Gohan and Ino came out of the apartment, they found Sakura just in front of the building; she seemed to have calmed down a little… until she saw the Saiyan again and started to panic again. But this time, the Yamanaka girl was able to hold her back from running away, telling her that…

"Gohan is a good guy, after all." she said, trying to convince her friend.

"Err…" she shyly glanced at Gohan who just smiled at her.

"I'm Son Gohan: nice to meet you!"

"Uh… hello…" Sakura said, earning a look from Ino that encouraged her to introduce herself properly "My name's Sakura Haruno… n-nice to meet you, too."

"Great, now let's go to the Academy before it's too late." she reminded them, satisfied with the way they broke the ice. But right now, all three of them had to get as fast as possible to their next destination, if they wanted to avoid troubles on their first day of the week.

(Just in Time – Ninja Academy)

The trio arrived right at the moment where the other kids were entering the huge building that was the Ninja Academy. From there on, Gohan stayed behind the girls, letting them lead him to their classroom.

"You are in the same classroom as Naruto, right?" the Hybrid asked. At the mention of the whiskered boy's name, both females stopped walking; Sakura looked at him with wide-open eyes, as if he said a forbidden word (Voldemort!) while Ino just sighed. An awkward silence reigned in the corridors of the Academy.

"Yes we are…" she finally answered him, not without showing the bit of annoyance in her voice.

"Good; all I knew was that I was in the same classroom as him!" he said, glad that he would learn both where his class was and when the lessons would start.

"Gohan…" Ino dared to say "If you want to avoid troubles here, you shouldn't hang out too much with 'him'."

"Huh? What? But, why?" he asked, confused by the warning of the girl.

"Are you having fun talking while classes start in one minute?" asked a man's voice coming from behind Ino.

All three of them looked up to see their instructor, Iruka, looking at them with an impatient expression on his face.

"I-Iruka-sensei… sorry, we're going in!" the Yamanaka girl said, grabbing Sakura by the arm and telling her to come, or she was more like dragging her. Gohan was about to follow them before he was stopped by Iruka who got on his way.

"You can't just enter the classroom now, Gohan: since you're new, you will have to enter with me and introduce yourself to your classmates."

"Oh… alright, sensei. Sorry." he apologized, bowing respectfully.

"Hehe, I know a group who should learn from you in regard of manners, you know." he referred to some students of his, probably "Anyway, I think everyone took their seats, so I guess it's time for us to enter."

He started walking to the classroom, followed by the Saiyan who has been waiting for that moment for a long time, even though he more thought of himself in a Mathematics class than in a Ninja one, but could he really complain about that?

They walked through some corridors before the teacher stopped in front of a door. He extended his hand to the doorknob, preparing to open it, and it was now of all time that the new student picked to start feeling anxious and stressed: for the first time in his life, he would enter a room where he would get his lessons taught to him by a real instructor. It would also be the first time he would study along with other kids his age: boys and girls alike, there would at least be twenty of them.

What are we talking about with the whole 'kids his age' thing? Isn't he supposed to be 23 years old or something like that? Maybe it's because he was never able to leave his childhood behind, even after being kidnapped and trained at the age of 4. Maybe he wasn't any older than he was back then, and the only thing that matured within him was his fighting spirit and experience.

How would he introduce himself to his classmates? How would he manage to keep training without them noticing it too much? What would happen to this world, once he would be back to Earth? Alas, he didn't have enough time to think about the answers to his questions as he heard the door slid in front of his sensei, revealing the inside of the classroom; his classroom.

…

As they entered, the first things Gohan could see were the grey walls of the room along with the wooden floor and ceiling, giving the place a traditional aspect, just like everything in the village, actually. There also was a wooden platform on a side of the room, with the teacher's desk on it, right in front of a big blackboard clear of any inscriptions, but the atmosphere was still filled with the smell of chalk: the weekend wasn't enough to allow that smell to fade and disappear, even with the windows open. Other things that caught his attention were the walls' decorations; on all the walls, he saw multiple papers that had inscriptions and texts written on them, and some plans that represented human physiology and anatomy.

In front of the desk, the things that were occupying almost half of the room were no other than the students' desks where over twenty kids were already sitting and chatting, waiting for their instructor to enter the room and start classes.

The babble of voices stopped as soon as Iruka entered. All his pupils got up and said in a sort of chorus.

"Good morning, Iruka-sensei!"

"Good morning, class. Sit down." he greeted back, telling his students to sit back. When they were all sitting and waiting for him to start his morning lecture, he cleared his voice and told them "Starting from today, we will welcome a new student in the classroom."

He looked at the entrance where Gohan was still waiting to be called and gave him the green light to enter. The Saiyan walked inside of the room and stepped on the platform, facing all his classmates.

"Come on; introduce yourself to the classroom, Gohan." Iruka encouraged him. Gohan slightly bowed in front of the other kids without placing his hand in front of his chest, this time; he preferred keeping it under his cape.

"My name is Son Gohan, it's nice to meet you all. I hope we'll get along well." more bedlam spread in there after the Hybrid's greetings. Sounds from everywhere could be heard.

"I've never heard of a clan called 'Son'." some whispered.

"I wonder what kind of guy he is…"

"Did you see the scar on his eye?! It's almost creepy."

"Why is he wearing that weird cape? It completely hides his arms!"

The gossips went on and on until they were stopped by their teacher.

"We're still waiting for a proper welcome here, did you forget?" thanks to him, the mess settled and all the students answered with a new chorus.

"We're glad to meet you, Gohan. Welcome!"

"Good. Now, Gohan, why don't you take a seat?" he invited the new kid. They looked around the desks in front of them: almost all were occupied, but five were empty and Gohan was wondering which one he should pick. One strange thing was that Iruka was glaring at four of them; an expression of annoyance mixed with concern appeared on his face.

The warrior also noticed something odd: Naruto was nowhere to be seen in the classroom! He also didn't see Kiba or the other lazy boy he met the other day.

"Hey Gohan!" called a girl's voice from the right row of desks. He looked that way and saw the blonde girl of earlier, Ino. She was sitting at the middle of the desk with the pink haired girl on her left, and one of the empty chairs on her right "Why don't you come to sit with us?"

Her invitation wasn't here to disappoint him, and the seat available wasn't one of those that his sensei was glaring at, so it meant that nobody owned it already. He made his way to the desk and took the seat next to the girls.

"Thank you, Ino."

"Don't mention it." she replied with a smile and a barely visible blush on her cheeks.

And so, the lessons started… or should I say; were about to start. Without anyone really noticing it, the door of the classroom slowly opened and closed, but nobody walked in which was really strange. Iruka was busy writing the title of today's lesson, which was _'The different environments of the Shinobi world.'_, and most of the students were following his every move and listening to his every word he would say and write. However, a minority of the kids were looking at the ground while exchanging looks and holding back their laughter because of what they were seeing.

We did say that nobody walked inside the classroom earlier, but we never said that nothing 'entered' it. Something actually entered the room, or should we say, someone; and this someone wasn't alone, they were four to crawl on the wooden floor, sneaking their way to the seats without getting noticed by the brunette teacher who was their number one enemy/obstacle in this operation.

'Are you sure it was a good idea, Shikamaru?' softly asked one of the crawling kids.

'Shhhh… He mustn't hear us.' he ordered.

'I'm hungry, I didn't even have my breakfast.' said another one of them.

'Damn it, Choji. Now's not the time, dattebayo…' they were only a couple of steps away from their respective desks when suddenly.

***Grooowl***

A massive growl was heard in the whole classroom, making the kids watching them burst out laughing and the others to finally look their way.

"Did you take a solid breakfast this morning, Choji?" Iruka asked without turning away from the blackboard.

"Not at all: Shikamaru had to make me wake up early to prepare some kind of 'plan' to sneak inside the classroom without you noticing us to avoid the lectures…" he answered, too confused and, especially, hungry to notice that he was actually telling all this to his teacher, with all the details. But, when he figured that out, it was too late "S-S-Sensei?!"

Before they knew it, the gashed instructor was behind them, crossing his arms and staring at them with fury in his eyes.

Gohan was looking at them too. He recognized Kiba with Akamaru in his sweatshirt, Shikamaru and…

'_Naruto? What are they doing, sneaking in the classroom like that?'_

"So you guys thought I would forget about the Friday afternoon by crawling your way here?!" he scolded them as they got back on their feet, looking down on the ground with shame "DON'T THINK I'LL LET THAT SLID **THAT** EASILY! That's why the four of you will get two hours of detention after school today, GOT IT?!"

"Yes, Iruka-senssei…" they answered with beaten voices.

"Good, now go take your seats!" they did as they were ordered to.

That's how Gohan's first day at school started… and that was only the beginning of the daily routines he would go through until the day he graduates from the Ninja Academy.

* * *

_**_Great Saiyaman54: For now, nothing is official, but it is still a possibility for laaaaaaater.**_

_**So it seems Team Kakashi won this poll (Personally, I thought Team Guy would win this, but it seems like Kakashi and Kurenai are more popular T.T)! That makes Gohan the fourth student of this team, just like Akamaru in team Kurenai (Yeah, I still count Akamaru as a member because he's badass, got it?!)**_

_**Back to the serious matters, we will soon do a time skip of some years, and the 'real deal' will start there: I hope you guys will like that arc I'm preparing for you :D**_

_**Here's a simple question: how do you guys think Sasuke is better as: an enemy 'till the end, an ally 'till the end or 'something in between'? Your opinion may or may not influence his character, so do say what you think, please.**_

_**Other than that, I hope you liked this chapter and stay tuned for more. Have a nice day/evening!**_


	6. The Days of Training

_**Chapter 6, oh yeah! But first… guest answer:**_

"_**_Guest: So you reviewed the chapters separately, is that it? Alright, so for the first review you're basically telling me that Gohan destroys the Narutoverse, right? No need to worry; I know that myself, but what would be the point if Gohan destroyed it? The answer is simple: he wouldn't have any friend and would wander on the planet until he dies of old age, alone (and if he blows up the planet, he will die due to lack of oxygen)**_

_**Your second review is a rant on how Gohan can't turn into a Super Saiyan anymore and Garlic not killing everyone. Well first, Gohan don't transform now because of something that will be revealed latter (A hint? The reason seems a little dumb, but it makes sense when you think about it well). As for Garlic, I don't think he would kill people with a better power than mere earthling humans when he can 'enslave' them *cough*AquaMist*cough***_

_**Your third review is more interesting, since it contains your opinion on Danzo's plans and Sasuke's behavior. For Danzo, let's say that he's still unaware of Gohan's powers; I think Hiruzen knows about his 'friend's way of thinking' and will try his best to hide that as long as he can. As for Sasuke, what you say about him being some kind of mercenary may be a good idea, but all I can tell you for now is that it definitely is a choice I will consider. Oh, and for Shizuka, I don't know about it, since she is a filler character, but she actually does have something similar with Chi-Chi which is kind of interesting.**_

_**Thank you for your reviews (especially the last one), and please, can you merge them into one next time? It would make it easier to know that you are the same person who wrote them."**_

"_**_dcsonic 10: Gohan revealing his 'heritage' to the others is something that might take a lot of time (virtually of course), that's all I can say. I don't know if I said it already, but 'learning' is a strong word when it comes to all the rookies using KI, what I want you to know is that all of them will get inspired by each others' fighting styles, and we'll see about the rest ;) As for the pairings, the suggestions are always welcome, but things won't get official anytime soon, since this won't be the heart of the story. Still, thanks for your review!"**_

* * *

_**VI\ The Days of Training**_

(In a desert plain – A small distance away from Konoha)

Calm… such was the atmosphere reigning in the deserted plain, some miles away from the Leaf Village. Of course, this place wasn't totally 'deserted' since there would always be animals of all kinds wandering around, but it wasn't for too long.

"Uuuuuh… AHHHH!" a violent sound echoed in the whole plain, followed by a strong wind spreading through it. It was welcomed by the cries of the birds spreading their wings open and flying away from this place. The other beasts living there were also alarmed and left their location to seek a calmer/safer place to hide in for the time being. But what was the source of such a skies-shattering shout?

In the middle of the deserted lands, a boy was standing. He had his eyes closed; he sacrificed his sight to further develop his hearing and spiritual concentration.

Ten minutes… it took him ten minutes to show a sign of life by opening his black eyes, and look around the place: after those ten minutes, even the slowest of the creatures had enough time to vanish. He released a light sigh.

'_I feel bad to chase those animals away from their homes, but if they get my way they might get killed.'_ he thought as he made sure for the last time that nothing would interfere with whatever he had to do. Once he was sure that the place was more desert than it usually was, he took a deep breath and got into a fighting stance _'Alright, I can finally start my training.'_

The sun has just started rising, bathing the plains with the warm and golden early sunrays that reflected on the person, making it way too easy to recognize him: the young boy was Son Gohan, and he was now adjusting his single arm in front of him, wearing a serious expression: he was focusing his KI through his body… gathering it… then, he started to split it.

'_Today, I'll train with a stronger clone!'_ he split his energy in a way to keep only 40% of his strength and gave form to the 60% remaining ones in the shape of a clone of himself that appeared next to him, in the same position.

The clone, since it was one, knew the intentions of the one who summoned it and quickly moved some steps away from him. Then, both Gohans took off, not breaking their visual contact. They rose until they were at a certain distance from the ground.

'_Good. At this height, I should be able to train without damaging the area too much.'_

He and his clone took their fighting stances and got ready for their sparring match. They stared at each other silently, as if the time has stopped… nothing could disturb them; only the wind would occasionally blow, shaking the trees around them and taking some of their leaves with it.

Suddenly, each one rushed at the other, preparing their fist filled with energy.

"aaaaAATA!" the two punches connected, resulting in a struggle for domination comparable to the one of two lions fighting over leadership or a piece of meat.

However, even with some few inequalities between them, the arm-wrestling seemed to lead nowhere and both Gohan and his clone realized it. For this reason, they held back their arms at the same time.

While one was getting ready to get back to the action, the other spine on himself, focusing his strength on his left foot this time and aiming for a circular kick.

It was, however, blocked with the single arm of his counterpart. The latter pushed his opponent's foot away and started attacking back with a series of kicks and punches that the clone, at first, preferred evading, gaining back his balance after being pushed away.

Soon, once he was able to, he started defending by blocking the attacks and trying to launch some of his own, resulting in a hand to hand struggle made of dodging, blocking and connections between the punches and kicks.

"AaaTATATATATATA!" their battle was raging through the plain, each blow they delivered would make the ground, still a considerable distance down, shake, and even disturb the clouds' movements.

"AAAAAYA!" both launched simultaneously elbow and knee strikes which ended with the two of them once more in for an arm-wrestling, but this time they realized something.

'_It's no use.'_ Gohan thought _'I can easily predict my moves and even with my clone keeping most of my power, this training isn't leading me anywhere… at this rate, I won't stand any better of a chance than I usually have against them.'_

Seeing how meaningless this 'training session' was, they separated, jumping backward and rolling in the air as they descended back to the ground. They stared at each other, before one of them started fading slowly: getting more transparent after every second that passed… until he, eventually, disappeared, giving Gohan his strength back.

'_I guess it's no use… I might as well train something else, before I go to school.'_ before going to school? Yes; all of this is happening super early in the morning because our Hybrid friend decided to start a daily routine which consisted of waking up earlier to be able to have a morning training session alone, in the calmest place possible. Of course, Konoha being surrounded by forests with, all here and there, some vast plains was pretty convenient for him to both train AND protect himself from the curious glares of anyone in the village: most of his identity, origins and powers still had to remain a secret from the villagers excluding the Third Hokage and Inoichi Yamanaka.

Waking up this early, strangely, wasn't that easy of a thing to do, even for he was a 'morning person' in nature. Then why is that? It actually was because he had 'them' again: it was just as bad as last time, and it made him wake up covered with sweat and feeling an unbearable headache from both 'this' and the forced awakening.

He was also breathing heavily and felt his heart pound inside of the left side of his chest violently. He could've gone back to sleep, but a pain in his stomach prevented him from doing so. He hardly got up on his feet and started walking out of his room, toward the bathroom. His vision would blur from time to time and he was forced to use the wall as a support to prevent him from falling.

He managed to make his way until he arrived to the toilets and started throwing out everything in his stomach, coughing each time worse than the other. Vomiting made him feel bad: his sweat now felt cold, the blur of his vision was getting worse, his throat and nose burned him, his whole body was shaking like a leaf and his headache just strengthened. The only positive thing was that his heartbeats were stabilizing now.

Once he was done with this pain, he allowed his body to fall on the cold wooden floor of the bathroom, taking deep breathes to help him recover.

"Ughh… *breath*" his eyes were half-open half-closed as he looked at nothing else but the roof above him, not able to move a muscle.

'_How long…?'_ he wondered_ 'How long… will I keep that up? How long… will I survive this?'_

He didn't remain like this for too long, as he took a grip of his left shoulder with his right arm. Then, he pulled it to his right in a way so he could be lying on his stomach. Using the little of strength he kept, he miserably crawled to the washbasin and, making it his support, tried getting back to his feet.

At first, the task was close to impossible as his legs wouldn't stop shaking, resulting in him stumbling and falling to his knee. But after insisting, he managed to stand more or less normally, still struggling to catch his breath with the awful taste in his mouth.

He activated the tap and left the water fall in the basin, noisily cooling. He extended his unique hand to cut the water's course and fill it with it. He slightly bowed his head, as he drew back his hand to his face and splashed the fresh water on it. He repeated the action a second time before he started feeling better.

He filled his hand again with water, but this time, he absorbed it with his mouth, washing the inside of it and his throat. The water sure was cold, but it felt good as it reduced the heat he felt earlier and chased away the bad breath that disturbed him so much.

He had his head hanging low as he allowed himself to 'enjoy' the goodness he felt from washing himself. He finally raised his head and looked at his reflection in the small mirror in front of him.

"He… heheh…" for some reasons, he left one light laugh escape from his lips "I never knew I was this fragile… I'm dead if don't toughen up more…"

And that is how he set his mind to start training early in the morning starting from this day on, even though he realized that clones weren't the best way to drastically improve all of his techniques.

Speaking of techniques, there actually was one that Gohan, since a long time, has tried to learn but without much success. He just remembered it as he saw his clone disappear and wondered why he didn't think about it earlier.

'_That's it! My next goal is that technique… if I manage to learn it, it will be perfect for a lot of situations, but still… it has been for, like, twelve years since I'm trying to use it and…'_ he started recalling all the troubles he went through to learn the skill in question: he missed it each time and it resulted in, back when he was still alive, Piccolo scolding him for his incompetence _'Ugh, whatever… I don't know until I try!'_

He inhaled a good amount of oxygen and immediately started focusing with his eyes closed. He slightly bowed his legs and clenched his hand into a fist.

'_First, I have to gather my KI…'_ he recalled as he allowed his energy to come out and envelop him in a white clear aura… it took him a little more than a couple of minutes to charge his energy to the fullest, but after that…

'_Now, I have to get in position.'_ he raised his hand in front of his face and, from his clenched fist, released his index and middle fingers, matched together and touching his forehead with them.

'_This technique… The last technique that Piccolo-san ever taught me: the Special Beam Cannon!'_

Yes. Gohan was actually trying to learn his former teacher's signature move, the demoniac Special Beam Cannon that pierced through one Saiyan armor as if it was nothing but butter.

Through all these years, the Half-Saiyan has tried mastering all of his fallen companions' skills. Why, you ask? To perfect his fighting style, of course. But wasn't there another reason? We can safely say that those years fighting alone and relying on nobody else did have an impact on the Hybrid: he was more confident in himself; and he had to be, otherwise the fate of his world would've been doomed, or at least, more than it already is.

But, no matter how strong his personality could get, he still had, deep within him, the cowardice he had as a child; and it didn't seem to be an aspect of him that he would be able to totally bury in the depth of his soul.

He was born with this human cowardice, he lived with it, and he will surely keep on living with it: an inner character trait, whether it is positive or negative, cannot be erased; it can only be channeled and controlled through hard work, just like he did.

The other reason that made Gohan work on his teammates' techniques was partially that fear: by doing so, he, more or less, felt their presence beside him, as if their spirit never left him and always kept on cheering him up, boosting his will to fight. A childish and, almost, foolish excuse, but it was what he believed in and what kept him from going insane all this time.

Naturally, he was more than able to reproduce his friends' moves, even perfecting them and giving it his own touch of skill. Going from Yamcha's Wolf Fang Fist and passing by Krillin's Destructo Disk and even Tien Shinhan's Solar Flare, and ending with Vegeta's Galick Gun. All took him, at some extent, a long time to master, but only one opposed him a solid resistance.

Twelve years… twelve years since he started practicing it, and he still couldn't throw it, not even a weaker version.

As he got into the position to prepare the beam, he would repeat in his mind the words of his master.

'_Even if you came to surpass me somehow, your control over your KI is still pathetic!'_ would scold the Demon King.

'_This might be the last technique you'll learn from me, but it requires all your concentration! It took me years to throw a decent version of that skill: before I even encountered Goku.'_ he surely referred to the first time using it against Raditz _'… and even more to master!'_

Gohan kept up the stance, moving to the next step to using the Special Beam Cannon; he directed all the energy he has been gathering toward his two fingers pressed on his forehead, trying to give a form to this inner strength by dividing it into two parts in this area and rub them together to create lightning; just as you would do with two stones.

'_I have to empty my mind… Right now, it's all about focusing my KI to my fingers without exhausting my vital strength.'_

He struggled to keep his energy under control during a long time: mastering the Special Beam Cannon is not only depending on the amount of KI you have, but also on how you use it in a way to create the necessary amount to unleash it, without neglecting the minimum you need to stay conscious: it is described as one of the best techniques to learn for those seeking to control their KI; such were the words the Namekian said as he instructed his student for the last time.

***Spark***

A light spark briefly emerged from his fingers before disappearing, proving that he was getting somewhere!

'_Just… just a little… more…'_ he thought as he tried his best to keep up the great rhythm he managed to get.

A short while after, a new lightning spark escaped, louder and longer than the previous one, and to top it all, it was followed quickly after by another one.

'_Yes! I'm so close… I'm so…'_ he suddenly felt a pain run through his left leg, making his knee bend a little _'No good! I need to focus!'_

Unfortunately, his vision began blurring and he felt a violent pulse of blood raise to his head, making him lose his balance: nothing could get in the way of his falling body that landed on the cold grassy ground of the plain, creating a small crack because of the weight of his cape.

***pant* *pant* *pant***

He was now on the ground, hardly catching up his breath.

"Darn it." he said as he got on his knee "I was so close; will I ever master this technique, Piccolo-san?!"

He yelled the last sentence toward the sky, as if he was directly asking his teacher for guidance.

…

Silence was the only answer he got from shouting… the time has passed very slowly since his training started, but the sun was still raising and its rays spreading through the place only made the young Saiyan realize that he still needed to go to the Academy.

'_With all this sweat on me, I guess a shower is needed: I'm now frequenting a school and it would be awful to smell that bad in front of them.'_

He got back up on his feet and took a flight in the sky, trying to localize the village. In wasn't long before he found it, so he descended back to earth and started running as fast as he could to the Leaf, then to his apartment where he did as he thought earlier and ate his breakfast as fast as he could (breakfast is a strong word, since it only consisted of a cup of milk and one apple)

He walked to his door and prepared to leave, still thinking of a solution about the technique he's trying to learn.

***knock* *knock***

He raised his hand to the door knob and was about to open it. But that was until he heard knocking from the outside. He froze there, blinking and with his mouth slightly open because of the surprise. Who could that be?

***knock* *knock* *knock***

The door was knocked on three more times, bringing the Hybrid back to reality. He finally grabbed the knob and turned it while unlocking the door, opening it slowly. He pulled it and looked behind to find who was there.

"Good morning, Gohan-kun!" a cheerful voice greeted him as he made eye contact with the knocker who wasn't unknown to him.

"Ino?" he was rather surprised to her again in front of his door today, at this hour. Yesterday, she was only supposed to have come to guide him to school on time, but nothing forced her to do it today too.

"Are you coming? We shouldn't be late for the first lesson!" she invited, a big smile drawn on her face.

"Err… yeah, sure. Can wait a moment please?" after that sentence, you would expect that the 'moment' was for him to check if he was ready and then come, but instead of this, he rushed out and ran to the other side of the corridor, to a certain blonde whiskered boy's door.

'_I wonder if he's already gone, but I might as well check that out.'_ he started knocking on Naruto's door before…

"Huh?" the door opened upon touching it: it wasn't even closed.

'_Does that guy ever close his door? It's dangerous to keep it that way!'_ he entered the blonde's room, avoiding the bowls of Ramen traps all over the floor before seeing it.

"What the…?!" in front of his eyes, a shocking spectacle was happening: there, sitting in front of the table, was the Uzumaki boy, half awake, peacefully sipping his cup of milk and eating from a box of Ramen. That was shocking, but not as much as another detail.

"What are you still doing in your PJ's?!" shout a panicked Gohan. That shout only made the blonde slowly turn his head toward him.

"Umm… Oh, hey Gohan… Zzz…" he was on the verge of getting back to sleep.

If the warrior still had two hands, he would've hit his own head with both, but instead of that, he quickly rushed to his friend and grabbed him by the collar of his night shirt and dragged him around the house.

Meanwhile, Ino got in front of Naruto's door and peeked inside, only hearing a fuss coming from the inside and seeing every kind of objects flying around. All she clearly heard was the scolding voice of Gohan and the complaining one of Naruto.

"Where are your clothes?"

"On me…"

"… I'm speaking about the ones for the ouside!"

"Somewhere in the house."

"There they are! Now put them on!"

"W-Wait! No need to do it yourself!"

"We're out of time, hurry!"

And the dialogue kept going on and on in every direction to the point the blonde girl couldn't keep up with it.

After the longest two minutes of her life, Gohan emerged from inside the house, dragging a groggy blonde behind him.

"Sorry for the wait, Ino. Now we can go." he apologized to his Yamanaka classmate, bowing slightly. And without any more explanations, the three were on their way to the Academy, even though Ino was more expecting to be only her and Gohan since Sakura refused to go there a second time and the fact that she wasn't glade to have Naruto around 'ruining everything' as he usually does.

(The Ninja Academy – Konoha)

They arrived just in time, like yesterday, even after what they lost because of Naruto. By seeing them, Iruka could only open his eyes as wide as he could: it was the first time he saw Naruto arrive on time, even though he preferred not making any comment about it.

Once all the students were here and took their seats, Iruka cleared his voice, trying to get their attention and stopping their morning chitchat.

"Alright, class. For this morning, we will have a lesson related to the village's history." he said, introducing the morning lesson's theme.

"Now, can someone remind me of the hierarchy in our village?" he asked. Some students remained just as they were while some others started raising their hands, some apparently knowing the answer, and some not.

"Go ahead, Sakura."

"First, there are the Academy students, which means, us. Then it's the Genins, a rank we will achieve after successfully graduating from the Academy. Then there are Chûnnins, and higher are the Jônins. But the leader of our village is the Lord Hokage." he answer was complete… for a student of her rank: the education there isn't different from any other places; you couldn't have the students learn everything in one year.

"Thank you, Sakura. Now, can someone else tell me how many Hokages we had and name them all?" to this question, fewer hands were raised and Iruka was now thinking of who he should give a chance.

"Umm… why so few? Alright, answer this question, Naruto." he designed the blonde who was trying to sleep on his table, making him cringed back on his seat.

"Eh?! Why me?!"

"Go ahead and answer the question: how many Hokages did we have and who are they?" Naruto started mumbling, trying to formulate an answer as his classmates would turn to look at him, apparently waiting for who knows what kind of goofy thing he would say.

"Ummm… there are four Hokages, and…"

"…Aaaand?"

"There sure is… the old man Hokage, dattebayo!" answered Naruto, referring of course to the Third. His spontaneous and clumsy answer earned him a facepalm from both Iruka and Gohan and laughs from most of his classmates while some gasped at the clumsy way he called their chief.

(Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office)

"Achooo! *sniff*"

Hiruzen Sarutobi was taking care of his paperwork, as usual. But today was one of these days where the mountain of paper was higher than it usually was. A sneeze escaped him before he had time to react to it, but thanfully, he had just enough time to turn his head away from his precious work.

"Not feeling good, 'Lord Hokage'?" asked the voice of someone sitting in front of the Third; he wasn't alone in his office, after all.

The Lord Hokage took a handkerchief out of his kimono's pocket, and cleaned his nose before answering his guest.

"Nothing, I might have caught a cold. _Just like Iruka…_" he said the last part to himself.

"Maybe you are just getting too old."

"Haha, thanks for your concern, but I can still handle my paperwork."

"Hn." the other man didn't add anything else after this, almost as if he was annoyed by the last reply of the Hokage.

What really felt strange was the way he addressed him: even though he called him Lord Hokage, he did put something in the name that almost was an ironic way of calling a friend by a title. Who was that man, anyways?

As we said above, he was sitting in front of Sarutobi, examining some files lying on the desk. He was an old man, just like the Hokage, only that he still had black hair instead of grey ones, barely visible from above because of a bandage that covered his forehead and his right eye, leaving only the left one visible; a brown orb. His face was, just like the one of any old man, full of wrinkles, and his chin had a cross-shaped scar.

He wore a white shirt that could actually be a kimono, but the right side of his torso and the lower part of his body were covered with a black robe in which, for some obscure reasons, he was hiding his right arm. Against his seat, there was a cane, proving that he could have some difficulties walking.

He kept examining document after document before putting the one he had in his hand on the desk and clearing his voice, getting his superior's attention.

"Hiruzen," he started, pronouncing the Hokage's real name "I heard there is a new clan in Konoha. What is that all about?"

"Ah." to say the truth, the Third has tried his best to avoid touching the subject: he knew that the man in front of him would ask sooner or later, and that he wouldn't be able to escape it "Yes, there officially is a new clan in this village: the Son Clan."

"What does that clan have to do with Konoha? Are you sure we can trust them?"

"I wouldn't have left them join if they weren't worth of trust."

"Let's drop the whole 'them' since there is only one member for that clan." he directly corrected "It is a small boy, on top of that; he's 7 years old, right?"

"Yes."

"I think I'll spare you more questions on why you made him join the village." that news seemed almost too good to be real to the ears of Sarutobi who was at the edge of his seat, waiting to know what the other man was about to ask.

"… But I wanted to ask you, since I have been searching through the documents regarding him: what is his clan's bloodline limit? I didn't find any information about it; neither did I find any clan affinity with any style of jutsus."

'_So that was the question he wanted to ask…'_ the Hokage thought _'There is no way I'll speak about his Saiyan heritage or the Super Saiyan; or else, Gohan is sure to end up in the ROOT.'_

"Danzo," he called the man, now known as Danzo "his bloodline limit is still unknown to even him; it might take some time before he discovers it."

…

There was a long silence in the room, during which they both stared at each other without a word spoken. Finally, Danzo nodded to himself muttering an 'I see' before he got up from his seat, grabbing his cane.

"Thank you anyway, Lord Hokage. It was my pleasure to speak with you." with that, he finally walked away from the Hokage's Office, leaving Hiruzen alone with his paperwork.

Being alone, he allowed himself to sigh, taking his pipe from one of the drawers of his desk and started smoking.

'_I really hope he graduates soon… I hope he does.'_

(Back to the Academy)

"So, as I was saying," Iruka, after scolding Naruto for both his lack of concentration AND his clumsiness and disrespect, took four scrolls on which were painted the faces of the four Hokages. He fixed them on the board so the whole class could see them and started presenting the leaders "our village has known four leaders until now: the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju, who was the founder of the village with Madara Uchiha. The second Hokage was Tobirama Senju, the First's brother, who was known for developing the village's overall system greatly. The third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, our current leader, also known as the Professor thanks to his mastery over several ninja styles of fighting and also because of the techniques he created himself. The fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze, is known to have been the fastest Shinobi to this date. He also fought the Nine-Tails in a fight to the death, saving the whole village."

As their instructor was introducing the Hokages, Gohan was paying attention to everything he said, but he still was intrigued by the picture of the Fourth: something about him gave the gashed kid a feeling of 'déjà vu', but he couldn't know why, right now.

And so, the school hours kept passing until the end of the day.

(After School – Outside the Academy)

Once the bell rang, all the students rushed out of their classes. We are still following Gohan, but we are doing so in another person's perspective, someone we still couldn't get to know enough, and we barely introduced a few chapters ago.

He was there, standing in front of the school's door, not doing anything in particular. Was he about to go home and rest for what's left of the day? No. Was he about to join some friends in the playground and relax? Not that either. Then what was he doing, you ask? He was looking at a boy in front of him, speaking with a crowd that was around him.

"Are you coming to the playground?" asked Kiba, one of the kids surrounding the boy.

"Sorry guys, but I have something to do for today." he answered, apologizing to his friends.

"What? C'mon, Gohan, we should take every opportunity we have of playing, dattebayo!" no need to precise who said, right?

"Maybe tomorrow, Naruto. See you, guys!" with that, Gohan left them, running to who knows where.

It's only now that the boy, who we are having an interest in, discreetly moved from his spot and started following the young Saiyan, trying his best to keep up with his rhythm.

He closely followed him behind, until the outskirts of the village, until a plain not so far from the village and…

'_It's on my way home!'_ he thought, before hiding behind a tree, at the limit of the forest: Gohan has just stopped walking and was now standing in the middle of the plain in front of him.

"Alright! It seems like the animals aren't back yet, I can freely train!" he said, taking a fighting stance.

'_Training? First thing after school?'_ the warrior sure was intriguing his stalker more and more every second that passed.

Then suddenly, a second Gohan appeared in front of the first one, just like that, shocking the sneaky boy.

'_D-Did he just summon a clone?! He didn't do any hand signs! Who is he?'_ he asked himself all these questions at once, but he still didn't see everything yet: the two Gohans rushed at one another and started landing blows against each other, getting in the same hit and miss session of training of this morning. The worst thing was that they were so fast the poor kid couldn't keep up with them.

'_So fast… and, is he REALLY FLYING?!'_ because, yes: the gashed boy soon took his fight to the skies, connecting fists with his clone so violently that the sound resulting from such a shock was comparable to the one of a thunderbolt crashing on the ground.

For some strange reasons, the shocked/scared expression of the stalker was soon replaced by a wide and bright smile of an amazed kid.

'_Amazing! If I could do the same thing, now THAT would impress both father and big bro!'_

* * *

_**I KNEW you guys were waiting for this, I freaking knew it! That's it for the 6**__**th**__** chapter, feel free to tell me what you think of the development of the story and suggest your own ideas! With that, I wish you a good night (since by the time I posted this, it was nighttime in my country) and I'll be glad to answer your questions… tomorrow of course.**_

_**See you everyone, and remember: peace, love and chocolate… nah, forget it, just chocolate for me!**_


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